Mark Pittaway 1971-2010
Mark Pittaway was appointed to a lectureship in European Studies at The Open University in 1999. He had previously completed his PhD at Liverpool University with a thesis entitled 'Industrial workers, socialist industrialisation and the state in Hungary, 1948-1958', which examined the interaction between industrial workers, the Stalinist state and the process of socialist industrialisation in post-war Hungary during the immediate post-war period. His time as a postgraduate student was followed by a brief period of teaching at Edge Hill College of Higher Education.
Mark joined the Arts Faculty at The Open University to work on the innovative, cross-faculty module AA300 Europe: culture and identities in a contested continent. At the same time he became increasingly well-known outside of the University as a specialist in central European history, especially Hungary, through an extensive electronic network of contacts in Hungary, Germany and the US. He became a much sought-after conference speaker around the world, visiting Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the USA. He published widely, producing journal articles and book chapters in both English and Hungarian – an unusual language skill for a scholar of his generation. His latest monograph, Industrial Workers and the Socialist State in Hungary had been delivered to Pittsbugh University Press and he was working on a history of Hungary for Blackwell. Meanwhile, his work had broadened and he was also researching a new project on borders and identities in Austria-Hungary 1938-1960.
Aside from his teaching and research Mark was also an excellent servant of the wider Arts Faculty, serving as Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) from 2005 to 2007. In this capacity he became well-known around the University and highly valued for his judgement on student affairs. Most recently, as part of the University's Student Support Review, he had led the Arts Faculty's initiative in the Nottingham region aimed at improving the student experience and progression. Mark was greatly committed to students and throughout his time at the OU served as an Associate Lecturer on the module AA300.
Professor David Rowland
Dean of Arts
The Open University
The Guardian, 22 November 2010
If you would like to leave a tribute to Mark, please type it below along with your name and where you are writing from. Tributes will be posted on this website.
I am embarrassed to write that I have only just heard of Mark's death (it is now February 2012) because I moved to New York from the UK in 2009 and have not been keeping up with many contacts. I travelled to Austria, Hungary and Romania with Mark and Tot Foster in 2001 making a programme for the OU series on borders and identities in Central Europe. I was the on-screen presenter, largely because of my knowledge of Hungarian art and design, but it was Mark who came up with the ideas for the itinerary and the overall content. It was a difficult trip in many respects because we could not always find the settings or people to match the aims of the programme. I was immensely impressed by Mark's grasp of the language and the various tendencies in Central European society, and how they reflected or contradicted long traditions in the region. Perhaps because of the problems in filming we spent many hours sitting in hotel bars discussing how certain ideas might be better represented. As others have written, Mark had a very agile mind and could often cut through complex problems with a simple but clear suggestion. I particularly remember an evening very late in the trip when we were staying in a small hotel in Cluj, run by an ex-securitate man, who provided each of us with a 2-litre plastic water bottle filled with his family's home-made brandy. Mark and I tried quite a lot of it that night but we were still able to film the next day. Mark's grasp of the history, politics and society in Hungary and Transylvania were very impressive and I always expected to be contacting him for an opinion or some information in the future. Unfortunately, I will not hear from him again.
I am very sorry to hear of his death but just so grateful to have worked with him.
Paul Stirton, previously University of Glasgow, now Bard Graduate Center, New York
Was just at the Slavic Association meeting in DC (2011), and Mark's name came up repeatedly as the source of this or that idea being discussed. A huge loss to scholarship.
Mark also personally very generous. I think of one thing in particular he did for me, far beyond the "call of duty," completely unbidden, but very important to me. This will always live in my memory.
John Connelly, UC Berkeley
I was so lucky to have worked with such an amazing man as Mark who exuded not only pragmatic and insightful intelligence but such a huge amount of warmth and compassion. I directed a programme for the BBC for Mark in 2000, and we had an adventure and a half travelling through Austria, Hungary and Romania. Mark's passion for the region overflowed and even after long days he could still come out with entertaining anecdotes and draw everyone into his ideas. I have only recently found out about his passing and it is such a loss. I remember Mark with a great deal of fondness.
Tot Foster,
Ex BBC Producer/Director
Mark's loss is a great shock. He was an inspirational colleague and writer, and his good humour, camaraderie, sometimes gentle subversion, and his mentoring approach are greatly missed. I am sure we will toast him at the AA300 Europe: Culture and Identities in a Contested Continent end of module assignment coordination meeting in September, but how much we would wish he was there. Last year we talked of marking it in some way since it is the last time the module is being run, but this certainly was not what we had in mind. What a great loss as an inspiration to students and colleagues alike, and as a wonderful person.
Karen Cereso, OU Associate Lecturer: AA300 Europe: Culture and Identities in a Contested Continent
I was shocked by reading the sad, tragical news of Mark’s death. First time we met in one of Hungary’s archives, in the middle of 1990s. A few months later he visited me in my home in Szeged, and at my invitation he held a lecture in the University of Szeged. At the same time we decided to publish a book, a collection of documents, as co-writers on theme Workers in Hungary in the 1950s. But the idea did not come true, Mark found new aims, new scientific topics. A few years later, together with a Hungarian historian, I published a similar book, titled: Munkások Magyarországon 1948 – 1956. (Workers in Hungary 1948 – 1956) As the editor, now I dedicate, post mortem, our book to Mark. Rest in peace.
Belényi Gyula, historian, Budapest, Hungary
So much has been said on these pages and so eloquently about Mark's outstanding contribution to scholarship and the warmth, humour and diplomacy he sustained in all areas of his work. He was a lovely colleague and I shall miss him very much.
Paula James, Classical Studies, The Open University
Somewhat belatedly, I have only just seen the sad and shocking news of Mark's death. He was the academic referee for my biography of Janos Kadar; his approach to this was generous and shrewd, offering good judgements and saving me from error on a number of issues. I subsequently met him at conferences on Hungary; he was both friendly and scholarly, and with a deep commitment to Hungary. 39 is cruelly early for anyone to die, and with Mark's death we have lost someone who had achieved an enormous amount but would have contributed even more.
Roger Gough,
Kent, UK
I got to know Mark well when he taught at Edge Hill at the end of the 1990s, and we became good friends and colleagues. As well as being an outstanding scholar, he was an enthusiastic teacher and an extremely likeable and very decent human being. He was wonderful company, and I'll really miss his infectious and mischievous sense of humour. It is a privilege to have known him, and we are all very much poorer for his passing. My thoughts and condolences go out to his family.
Tony Webster, Liverpool John Moores University
Mark was a great friend and an excellent scholar. I've always enjoyed discussing Hungarian affairs with him, of which he had a vast and deep knowledge. He was thorough and full of ideas.
I will miss him a lot.
András Lake, journalist, Hungary
Rest in Peace Mark.
Daniel, University of Szeged, Hungary
Mark was a mensch in the truest sense and I will miss him terribly, as will so many others. Since I owe him so many debts that can never be repaid, the best tribute I can think of is to try to emulate Mark's unpretentiousness, generosity, sense of humor, political commitment, and intellectual humanism--but it will be very hard. With great sadness, I send condolences to his family.
Kate Lebow, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
I did not meet him personally but read his comments on the 56 Hungarian revolution in The Guardian. His argumentation was logical, focused on the point and reflecting strong commitment as well as democratic values.
István Hegedűs, sociologist, Hungarian Europe Society, Budapest
I am devastated to hear of Mark's death. He was a stellar undergraduate student at the University of Warwick - from a period when the study of foreign language was taken seriously as an adjunct to the History programme. In his later career he acted as a true ambassador for the study of history in an interdisciplinary context. He will be greatly missed.
Dr Sarah Richardson, University of Warwick
How shocking and sad. He was a voice of gravitas and scholarly
integrity with a good sense of humor, as well. With him died a wealth of knowledge about Hungarian archives and Hungarian history. He believed strongly in the community of scholars. Although as a British citizen he had no direct stake in the problem of archive access for U.S. Citizens, he provided the most assistance and active involvement of anyone. He really
believed that a vibrant scholarly community was built from many voices and nurtured that end in his scholarship and his teaching/administrative career.
I will miss him. He will be missed.
Alice Freifeld, University of Florida
It has been humbling, and also deeply moving, to read through the testimonials and learn the breadth of Mark's influence during his horribly short life. I started a new archival project on 1950s Hungary in fall of 1996. To my delight, I met Mark early on, and he became my guide and friend. For over a year, we probably spent 3-4 days a week working alongside each other in the archives on our respective projects, and then discussing and debating exciting finds and curious events over lunch. My work was profoundly influenced by Mark's invaluable advice. He counseled me on the nitty-gritty details of various archives relevant to my work, challenged me to expand my analysis, and convinced me that county archives would be useful for my project on cooperative wage policy even in the absence of well established party cells in village communities. County documents offered a richness and depth to the history I could never have imagined. I was poised to send him the book manuscript I just finished based on that research, once more to benefit from his insights and knowledge. And the idea that it won't happen, that he won't be there to see it through with me, is unbearable.
Mark was generous to a fault, kind in manner, unyielding in his politics. His laugh was infectious, and his appetite--for good talk as well as good food--was enormous. He set the highest standards for his own scholarship, and encouraged the rest of us to follow in his footsteps. I miss him terribly.
Martha Lampland, University of California, San Diego
I met Mark for the first time in 2002 in London, where I was teaching at that time. I had already known his name as the strange Englishman whom all Hungarian historians saw in the archives of Budapest, so I was really looking forward to meeting him personally. I was lucky to exchange ideas with an exceptionally erudite, intelligent historian with a unique sense of irony. Behind the mask of his sometimes sarcastic critical mind, he developed a true emotionally sensitive attitude to Hungary. I remember the Facebook communication he deeply engaged together with other Hungarophile friends from all over the globe about the last elections in Hungary. Albeit, it was far from a joyous event, the personal commitment and stakes he revealed for this country, proved to be the most remarkable memory of the campaign, at least to me. Although, we were never engaged in close cooperation, we regularly met in conferences. Last time in Budapest, when he delivered a brilliantly argued paper on the prospective of comparative social history in East-Central Europe. We agreed to have a coffee some time when overcoming the busy period of exams and conferences. It seems, however, that Mark’s always curious mind and talent never had the time to rest. I will miss that coffee forever now.
Péter Apor, Central European University, Budapest
I am deeply saddened to hear of Mark's death. I had the privilege of editing one of his fine essays in a journal issue some years ago, and his insights on Hungary were immensely valuable to those who, like me, worked on very different areas of the world. His scholarship will last.
Rana Mitter, Institute for Chinese Studies, University of Oxford
Mark was a good friend whilst growing up together and it is incredible to read all the work he has achieved. The tributes are amazing and reflect his warmth and time he had for everyone.
He will be sorely missed. His spirit will live on, though, and that is fantastic.
Duncan Woolmer (ex Netherton boy) now in Cambridge
I will always remember how Mark cheerfully and enthusiastically applied his research into Stalin and Eastern Europe to the art of academic management.
Phil Perkins, Classical Studies, The Open University
I will miss Mark's friendly face and good humour at our AA100 The Arts Past and Present meetings and award boards, and his incisive and well-judged comments at our faculty meetings. He will be greatly missed.
Trevor Fear, Classical Studies, The Open University
Would just like to offer my sympathies. I have only just been introduced to his writing via The OU, currently reading the Stalin chapter for the AA100 The Arts Past and Present course. He turned a much dreaded topic into a fascinating subject and it’s just such a shame. I’m sure his work will help future students and help his memory live on.
Andrea Plaskitt, Lincolnshire, AA100 Student, 2010
The countless messages left here are a touching tribute to Mark's generosity of spirit and the important contributions he made to the scholarship of Eastern Europe. I am saddened that our paths will no longer cross and that we will no longer have a chance to have engaging conversations with him. By coincidence, tomorrow we will be discussing the last chapter of his postwar Eastern Europe textbook in one of my courses. We will miss him.
Brigitte Le Normand, Indiana University Southeast, USA.
I worked for Mark in his role as Associate Dean. He was so enthusiastic and dedicated to his work. He loved and thrived on the events and meetings that I entered into his very busy diary. Mark was just the most kind and gentle person you could ever meet. I was deeply shocked to hear of his death. He will be very sadly missed by us all.
Rose Mepham, Curriculum Management, Arts Faculty
I was so sad to hear of Mark's death and cannot imagine what the loss must be like for his family. Mark was very committed but also had a fine sense of the ridiculous, which made him great company. I was lucky to have worked with such a good colleague.
Kathleen Daly (former colleague)
I only knew Mark briefly, when both of us were involved in a European Science Foundation research project on fascism and occupation in wartime Europe. But I quickly came to appreciate him hugely as a colleague and collaborator. He was a tireless contributor to online and seminar discussions among the project group, and a generous and perspicacious commentator on chapter drafts for our jointly authored book. I was hugely impressed both by his encyclopaedic knowledge of Hungarian history and culture; he became an example to me in my own subsequent work on Hungarian cultural history, and I know - not least from comments on this site - how large a gap he will leave both in this scholarly field, and in the lives of all those he touched as a friend, teacher, mentor and colleague.
Erica Carter, University of Warwick
Every time I saw you a smile instantly came to my face -- from the first moment you arrived at our panel, soaking wet, but full of irrepressible enthusiasm and energy, in that conference room amidst the Boca Raton hurricane. I enjoyed every moment we spent together, although they were far between, spread over more than a decade of conferences and workshops (and pubs) across Europe and the USA. You were a kind, generous, vivacious, brilliant colleague and friend. I will deeply miss you and all the conversations we will not have. You deserved many more decades of life.
Ben, Evanston, IL, USA
Mark is a wonderful colleague and friend. It is just impossible to imagine that I will never again walk into a lecture room, a hotel lobby or a street in some European university town and meet him. At such occasions he would smile in his very characteristic way, and be ready to discuss history and many other things. I always found him passionate and very involved in his profession, analytically superb and always an open eye for the experience of common people. Mark was one of the core members of a collective project running for five or six years. We choose to call it ‘the war for legitimacy in politics and culture’, of course in serious danger of being pretentious. The pleasure involved was that all of the team were challenged to overcome the specialisations which at the same time enrich and vex our job. Mark was in the forefront of the effort, and helped to make it great fun. We met several times after finishing the project, the last time less than two weeks before his passing away. Impossible to understand. Terrible. We will remember him very fondly. My sincere condolences go to all family and friends.
Peter Romijn, NIOD / University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
I am terribly sorry to hear this sad news. East Central European history has lost a great young scholar. My deepest condolences to Mark's family and colleagues.
Larissa Douglass, University of Oxford
I met Mark for the first time about a decade ago when he spoke at a seminar on the material culture of Eastern Europe under communist rule. He spoke with real passion and intellectual energy, and offered generous, insightful observations about the work of the other speakers. In the years that followed, we worked together occasionally and I enjoyed every single meeting we had. He was a very good scholar and a very decent human being. He will be missed greatly.
David Crowley, Royal College of Art, London
In 1998, I recruited Mark to his first AAASS conference - in Boca Raton - to a panel I was supposed to be on. He and I shared a room; neither of us could afford the AAASS hotel rates, but we found a little motel near the beach. That was the AAASS broken up by a hurricane. The morning of the panel, Mark and I ran to the hotel through a driving rain. He had to shed his suit, I recall, and delivered his paper sopping wet, wearing an AAASS T-shirt someone gave him. But he pulled it off so stylishly!
Mark and I met in Budapest in 1996, where we spent a great deal of time together. He was generous, thoughtful, and expansive, and he cared a lot about Hungary. His work on Hungarian labor has been influential, and I look forward to finally seeing his book in print. It will be, I am sure, a fitting legacy.
I could not be more shocked at this news. Mark, we'll miss you!
Padraic Kenney, Indiana University
I first met Mark sometime in July 2005 when I gave a seminar at the OU; he later did me a nice turn (I think in the evening of the same day) when he took me to see Prof Clive Emsley at home. We had very rewarding discussions about our research orientations. I asked after him in June this year (2010) when I was again in the OU to participate in a workshop organised by Prof Pete King and was told he was fine. This sad news of his passing therefore comes as a rude shock. But it is real. May his great soul rest in perfect peace. And may God grant his immediate family members the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Dr Kemi Rotimi, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Mark embodied the brightest and best ideals of The Open University. He was great colleague and a good man. I specially appreciated his rather uncommon combination of a great sense of humour with great kindness and integrity, his disarming giggle and his exceptional gift for collegial friendship. From 2001 until OU Arts Faculty’s move out of Crowther Building a couple of years ago, Mark and I enjoyed regular early evening chats while he waited for print jobs from the machine outside my office. He was always ready to share his fresh, inspiring enthusiasm for his own latest project and listen with genuine interest to updates on mine. Sometimes, our brief chats turned into long conversations, during which he often unobtrusively and generously shared his expertise in a whole range of subjects, from archives to Zsolt Semjén, via Johnny Cash. I valued Mark as a world-class historian and a very special colleague, and will miss him as a friend. My thoughts and deep sympathies are with his family.
Peg Katritzky, Arts / English, The Open University
I was in Mark's Nottingham tutorial group for this year's AA300 Europe: culture and identities in a contested continent course that ended in September. This news is absolutely awful. He was a really nice guy and gave us as a group so much. Tutorials were always interesting, fun and well attended. This was down to Mark's obvious vast knowledge and enthusiasm for his subject. He will be sorely missed. Condolences to his family and close friends.
Ian White, OU Student, Kettering
I have been reading Under the Frog, Tibor Fischer's wickedly funny novel about Hungary in the years between the Soviet 'liberation' and the 1956 uprising, and it brought Mark to mind on several occasions. His sense of the absurd made him the ideal person to share its pleasures. It was also an ideal gift for someone committed to an active part in the Open University's policies and direction from the moment he joined. He laughed a lot, but he also worked hard, both to uphold and to change.
A sweet, kind man, probably too modest to know how affectionately he was esteemed.
Cicely Havely - retired from The Arts Faculty and Student Services
I have put off writing on this tribute page because in a way it is an acceptance that Mark is no longer at the end of a telephone, an email or even a Facebook page. It is so very hard to believe that such a vital and special person is not going to be in all of our lives other than as a wonderful and fond memory. I am older than Mark and selfishly thought that he would be there when I am ninety and only able to eat soup. And I would have expected him to treat me to his wide variety of Hungarian soups.
I met Mark with an idea for a book or a programme on Hungary. He took me seriously from our first meeting in the British Library and for that I will always be grateful. There then followed a series of delightful and protracted meetings in London, Oxford, Milton Keynes and Budapest. Many a time after an evening in one of MK's fine restaurants Mark would drive me to the railway station and we would continue talking as train after train left for Euston. Thankfully in Oxford there was always the 24 hour bus. This summer we had a fun dinner in Oxford and ordered a chocolate fondue for the hell of it. Both of us ended up splattered in chocolate sauce and walked up the Banbury Road in shame. Mark assured me that this happened to him quite often and recommended the name of a cleaning product to remove the stain. It did not work and is still visible - a marker to the only time that Mark ever let me down as a friend and an expert. I now look at that stain with such affection rather than with my former irritation.
I suppose that what I want to say is that Mark was one of the finest human beings I have had the privilege of knowing let alone being a true scholar. Someone so decent and kind that his mark on my life and the life all of his friends will be like that chocolate stain - there for good. He always had the answer but never in a pompous way. He always had an idea and it was always original. Most importantly he was always there for his friends and we are so very much poorer for him not being here today.
I very much had the idea that Mark came from an extremely close and happy family. He would talk with such pride and delight about his parents and his siblings not forgetting Leeds United and almost anything else to do with Yorkshire. Almost the last thing we talked about was the birth of his sister's twins. He was so excited for his sister and her husband and thrilled for his parents who were to be grandparents, I think, for the first time. I am just so profoundly sad that those little twins will never know the wonderful uncle they almost had.
Henrietta Foster, BBC
I met Mark a month ago at first in my life. We were talking on cooperation between our universities and his relation to Hungary. I was impressed by his interest and deep knowledge on my country. His fluent Hungarian also surprised me. Rare feature, indeed. The tragic news that our only meeting was the last one shocked me. We lost a brilliant young man and a true friend. I share the pain of his relatives, friends and colleagues. Rest in Peace Mark.
Gabor Bartha, University of Miskolc, Hungary
Mark was a fantastic human being - a modest, almost shy young man with clear and confident views of the world around him based on his impressive intellect, perfect overview and understanding. When I met him first in the middle of the 1990s, talks with him gave me so much of new information and revealing context on Hungary, my own country - I found this astonishing, from a person from a whole generation distant from me by age....not only on his research topic that was, I think a huge enrichment for the history of social welfare of workers but also on developments of actual political processes. It is a tremendous loss to lose someone like Mark so early and thereby his potential contribution to bettering the world.
Csilla Kollonay Lehoczky, Legal Studies Department, Central European University ; Faculty of Law, Eötvöl Loránd University
I got acquainted with Mark in Budapest in the early 1990s when he came to Hungary as a PhD student. He was an exceptionally talented young man and a very inspiring personality, who worked with a remarkable faith and endurance. He had a strong calling for representing left-wing and labour interests both academically and politically. He died tragically very early, at the age of 39. His death is a horrible shock to everybody, who knew his gentle, kind and good-hearted personality. I recommend his works to everybody, who shares his academic and political goals. Some of his articles are published in the Hungarian journal Eszmélet (Consciousness). He was very generous in sharing his ideas with his friends, students and colleagues. In the Hungarian academic community many of us liked and respected him as a good friend and an inspiring young scholar. We will preserve his memory.
Tamas Krausz, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Budapest
I first met Mark in a Hungarian archive where he collected material for his book on the Hungarian workers. When he learnt my topic, this meeting was followed by many, many more. He meant a great inspiration to my work; he was not only a great scholar but also a great teacher with a deep interest in developing the human mind, and a great friend. It is horrible to have to talk about his witty, brilliant and warm-hearted, generous character in the past tense, and it is still unbelievable that a man, who gave so much to the world, could die so tragically young. His name and his works will be preserved in Hungary. I will always remember him.
Eszter Bartha, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Budapest
Reading all the wonderful tributes to Mark, it is hard to find new things to say about him. I can only echo what so many have already said about his kindness, lovely sense of humour, dedication, compassion and an unfailing ability to see things in their correct perspective. It was a pleasure and privilege to work with him; I will always remember his generous support to me in my work as a member of the Arts Deanery team, where his clear thinking and insights guided me through many a labyrinth (often of my own making!). Conversations with him about his work were always illuminating, interesting and, above all, fun. I know he will be greatly missed and my sympathies go to his family and friends at this very sad time.
Jane Cawkwell, formerly an administrator in the Arts Faculty, The Open University
Like everyone who had worked with him, I was deeply saddened to hear of Mark's passing. Others have paid tribute to his scholarship and his major contribution to the field of modern European history. I would just add that he was also an utterly selfless colleague - a committed team player as well as a highly gifted individual talent (a rare combination!). In my experience he demonstrated a great deal of intellectual generosity: always willing to share his knowledge, always offering sage and constructive feedback to colleagues in preparing teaching units, and never in the least bit precious about his own contributions. Mark will be sadly missed but fondly remembered.
James Chapman, Department of History of Art and Film, University of Leicester
I still cannot believe that Mark is gone. I met him at the fabulous conference Everyday Communism he and Nigel Swain put together in 2003 and I looked forward to seeing him at the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) (now the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) conventions after that. He was incredibly generous with his time with people and managed to make you feel special and interesting. He listened carefully, spoke quietly and was genuinely sweet. Before he died, he and I were writing a chapter on Communism together and I felt so honored to be collaborating with him. It is my deepest regret that we did not finish the project as it would have been a wonderful reminder of our friendship.
His expertise spanned the entire twentieth century, Central and Eastern Europe. His engagement with current events made his Facebook page a favorite place to visit. He will be so missed.
Irina Gigova, College of Charleston, South Carolina
