I'll never forget Mark's laugh, and his sense of humour in the face of adversity. I enjoyed many interesting 'corridor conversations' with Mark; putting the world to rights, and enjoying the very human side of day-to-day life here at the OU. Mark was an absolute pleasure to work with. I shall miss him.
Yvonne Raw, Curriculum Management Office, The Open University
I met Mark two weeks ago for the first time. He followed my invitation to a workshop in Leipzig. His presentation was brilliant and the debate afterwards a pleasure for everyone. Thus we thought immediately to work together in the future; that there's none - a shock. He'll be in our thoughts when we realize what we planned.
Katja Naumann, GWZO at the University of Leipzig
Mark was the most enthusiastic OU lecturer I have ever had in all of my OU studies... he made each study session fun and greatly informative. Nothing was too much trouble for him and he was full of good ideas & obviously a great deal of knowledge about his subject. I cannot believe that he has gone, but I will try and always remember his enthusiasm for knowledge and learning as I continue in my own studies. Thanks Mark - you were a star and you will be missed xxxx
Ruth Gladwin, OU Student on AA300 ‘ Europe: Culture and identities in a contested continent', (Jan-Oct 2010)
Mark was my tutor on my last module for my degree.... he pushed my thinking and challenged my writing..... he encouraged me faultlessly to explore. I am so shocked by this news.... I so wanted to be able to thank him for opening a new world to me and for being such a positive part of my learning journey.
Iona Lloyd Jones, OU student, England
I never met Mark Pittaway in person, but we corresponded by email on several occasions. Over the years I became very familiar with his fine scholarship, which ranged beyond his own area of expertise, Hungary, to postwar East Europe as a whole. I am saddened to hear of his premature passing, and truly wish I had had a chance to meet him in person. This is a great loss for the profession, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.
Andrew I. Port, Department of History, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
I was quite shocked to hear the news of Mark's passing so suddenly and so young. He was really an outstanding historian in his field - and beyond - earning a huge respect for his work and his teaching. He was enormously supportive of his colleagues, especially those younger than himself, generous of his advice without favour. He was great fun to be with and a terrific laugh, never taking himself or what he did, which was a lot, all that seriously. Mark's passing is a huge loss to the History Department and to the University. We will remember him with affection.
Ian Donnachie, Emeritus Professor of History, History Department, The Open University
I've met Mark first time in a special, little Hungarian archive (Union's Archive in Rózsa utca, Budapest) about 1996. He was sitting behind the archival boxes of the ‘Hungarian Labour History'. I could hardly see him because the boxes have built a Chinese wall between us. But we began to talk, of course, in Hungarian. He was the only foreigner historian making research in Hungary, who always wanted to speak Hungarian with Hungarian people. We have been talking much about the workers of the 'socialist period', and we became friends for years. He was the only foreigner historian who knew more archives in Hungary than some Hungarian researchers. Sometime I felt, and the feeling has become stronger, that he became a little bit ‘Hungarian' during the years he spent in Budapest, Sopron and in other cities. We could speak not only about social history, politics, or new books, but about cities, restaurants, and beers (I must thank him that I became fond of Kilkenny, and I hate the Indian kitchen because I have shared Indian food with him too many times). He remembered the days when he had been living in the building of the symbolic self-service restaurant (Pajtás), as it would have been the paradise. I remember his story about his research trip to the Hungarian countryside (Zalaegerszeg), where he had to wait for hours in a little Hungarian village called Ukk, waiting for the next train. But Ukk has a pub, and the people there told him: ‘Hey, you are speaking so strange. You are maybe from Szeged.'
I remember when he was playing with my son when he was one year old, and he has seen my daughter when she became two months old. This was the last time we have met each other. We celebrated his 39th birthday together, and I did not know that this was the last one. I will miss him from the archives, conferences, and pubs. And I will miss his phone-call: ‘Na, itt vagyok Budapesten.' [Well, here I am in Budapest ]
Sándor Horváth, Budapest
Mark Pittaway made a huge contribution to the University of London, School of Advanced Study, as the external member on our quality assuring body. He had a wealth of knowledge about quality assurance gleaned from his experiences around the world and will be sorely missed. On a personal note Mark was extremely personally supportive, showed an unparalleled understanding of the lot of an administrator in a University, and provided moral support on many occasions. In a typically generous gesture, Mark had agreed to spend time assisting with preparing for our forthcoming quality audit. Although that will now not be possible, I take some comfort from knowing that I had the pleasure of working with a modest, conscientious, approachable and very generous man who always made time.
Elaine Walters, Registrar, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Mark was a close friend. We were drawn together not long after he joined the University by shared socialist values and a common interest in the history of the Left and I still find it remarkable that our friendship survived his period in the management of the faculty. We regularly met to curse the world and share a joke over coffee. The corridors at Walton Hall now seem much quieter and much duller without the comrade from the history department.
Steve Edwards, Art History Department, The Open University
Mark was a great scholar and friend. He had a great sense of humor, and was full of ideas. I also admired how he mastered a language like Hungarian - and later also German. I miss him and I'm so, so sad that we can't meet in Los Angeles next week.
I remember when I met him for the first time: It was the Slavic Studies Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. His luggage went missing, but when Mark started to speak about Hungarian history, he was so impressively intellectual and academic in spite of the funny t-shirt he had to wear. Dear Mark!
Árpád von Klimó, DAAD Visiting Professor, University of Pittsburgh, (Berlin, Budapest)
Mark was a rare and precious combination - inspirational teacher, enthusiastic colleague, wonderful friend. He was involved in, and excited about, so many things, and brought joy into the lives of so many people. It seems impossible that he is no longer with us.
Sarah Smith, Faculty of Arts, The Open University
The editors of the journal Contemporary European History were shocked by the news of Mark's death. Mark did some extremely innovative work on central European history. His work was - and certainly will continue to be - extremely important for our understanding of contemporary European history. He shared his thoughts and ideas generously and was an extremely reliable and thoughtful peer reviewer for our journal: he wrote the kinds of reports - perceptive, full, engaging - that every author of a journal article and every journal editor could wish for. The readers of our journal will remember him for a number of original and empirically rich pieces that were published in our journal over the last few years. We will miss his intellectual energy, generosity and his kindness. Personally, I have discussed many issues relating to the remaking of post-Second World War Europe with Mark over the years and have profited immensely from these discussions. I will miss a friend.
Holger Nehring, Department of History, University of Sheffield, for the editors of the journal Contemporary European History
I knew Mark mainly through his work on the OU course AA100 The Arts Past and Present. Mark contributed a fascinating chapter on Stalin's reputation. Mark succeeded in conveying a complicated and challenging topic with a remarkable deftness of touch. Like many others here, what I shall remember most about Mark are his personal qualities - his care and conscientiousness, particularly for his students; his kindness - once spending an hour with me, for example, to advise on the intricacies of conference organisation; and his sense of the ridiculous, usually signalled by an infectious giggle that could lighten the stodgiest meeting. His death at such a young age seems very cruel. He will be greatly missed.
Carolyn Price, Philosophy Department, The Open University
Mark was a friendly, kind and very approachable member of academic staff. He will be very sadly missed in the Faculty.
Lisa Robinson, Deanery, Faculty of Arts
I worked with Mark in the Deanery team in the OU Arts Faculty, and my abiding memory is of the relish with which he approached life. He relished his research, was absolutely passionate about teaching, tackled management duties with gusto, and all in all seemed massively appreciative of his place on this earth, of the career he enjoyed, and the opportunities it gave him. His immense talent (about which he was inordinately modest) gave this shy man the opportunity to enjoy meeting so many people and building so many bridges, and his wry and dry sense of humour gave him the ability to be endlessly amused by situations that tend to exasperate others. He was an exemplar both as an academic and as a person, and I will miss him enormously.
Michael Flack, Faculty of Education and Language Studies, The Open University
I was Mark’s PhD supervisor from 1993 to 1998 in what was then the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Liverpool; but he did not need me. I gave him sage advice, of course; I gave him encouragement, and read drafts; but the project was his alone. He identified the topic and the sources; and the result was path-breaking, perhaps paradigm-shifting. Until then I do not think anyone realised how much Hungarian archives, national but particularly local, could tell us about the social history of the bleak era that was Stalinist Hungary. His careful analysis of archival and oral history evidence demolished utterly the then still common view that under ‘totalitarianism’ the working class was atomised and impotent. I had no doubt that Mark would develop into the world class historian that he did.
Perhaps I can claim one minor success as supervisor: I persuaded the ESRC to fund language training. Other contributors to this tribute page have commented on his knowledge Hungarian. A Hungarian friend reminded me recently of an occasion in Budapest in the 1990s, probably after a supervision, when Mark and I and some Hungarian friends were sharing a few beers. It was the only time in her life, she commented, that she had been in the company of two non-Hungarians and the lingua franca had been Hungarian.
Others have mentioned Mark’s generosity. My example of this would be the conference on Everyday Socialism that we organised in April 2003 (still on the web if you google it). I say ‘we’. He in fact organised almost everything, yet he always referred to it as ‘our’ conference; and it produced some tremendous papers.
Some months ago Mark sent me a disk with what I think was the final version of the ‘book of the thesis’. I hope it will appear in print soon as a tribute to his scholarship. Our memories can be the only tribute to his humanity.
Nigel Swain, School of History, University of Liverpool
Mark and I worked in very different fields; however, I had the great pleasure of talking to him about any number of topics at one place or another at the OU or at related events. I always found myself wishing I had more time to talk to him, not only to benefit from his extensive knowledge but also to enjoy his subtle and sly humour. I am shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden death of such a young, creative, gentle and generous colleague. My thoughts are with his family.
John Carter Wood, History Department, The Open University
Reading through all the tributes here to Mark is very moving and really brings home to me how much I am going to miss him. Mark was a very creative member of the Arts Faculty, who was absolutely committed to the ideals of the Open University and worked incredibly hard to get the best for students. He was also a fantastic colleague - intellectually acute, politically aware and professional in dealing with any matter, but always kind and thoughtful, with a subversive sense of humour that made working with him a lot of fun.
Clive Baldwin, Faculty of Arts, The Open University
It is unbelievable that Mark has gone. He was so kind a man and such a talented historian. When last time we had a lunch together and a coffee talk at my Institute room at the Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, probably in late September or early October, we dealt with the future; I promised him to write a review article on his book soon appearing in the US. This probably will be done but he won't have the occasion to read it.
Gábor Gyáni, Budapest
Speaking for his friends among the historians of Burgenland and Western Hungary, where Mark was frequently seen visiting and researching the local archives, I must say that we are greatly shocked by his sudden death. We lose a valued colleague and a true friend, whit whom we shared many interests – as well as many jokes. He could do so, because he spoke Hungarian fluently, better than any Brit I know. And he had a outstanding knowledge of this part of the world. We loved him, because he carried his profound learning lightly. Sit tibi terra levis!
Gerhard Baumgartnert, ÖZG – Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften (Vienna)
Mark was a brilliant historian, a kind and generous colleague, and a real friend to so many of us in North America who also study Hungarian history. I first met him at a conference over ten years ago, and had gotten to know him as a friend in the years that followed. I had looked forward to many more years of meetings and conversations, and cannot believe that, now, this won't happen. His enthusiasm for every aspect of Hungary's culture and society was infectious and also tremendously inspiring. I miss him very much.
Paul Hanebrink, Department of History, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
I am saddened and shocked to hear of Mark's cruelly early death. I worked with him on several OU summer schools, learned much from his patient attitude towards students, and had much fun in his company.
Krista Cowman, Professor of History, University of Lincoln
Reading the many tributes to Mark on this site, I am struck by how Mark's intellect and generosity came through in every context, not just the world of Eastern European Studies where we met, but also in the unremarkable conversations and chance encounters that he had all over the world with people who quickly became his friends. Since hearing the news, I have been remembering his mischievous laugh and his Yorkshire accent, so distinctive to American ears.
In just a week, some of us will gather at the annual Slavic Studies conference, held in Los Angeles this year, where Mark was due to participate on several panels. His funeral is happening on the same day that many of us will be arriving at the conference (and at the same time that he expected to be enjoying California weather) and I hope we'll take some time out to share remembrances of him. He had become such a fixture at the annual event even though he had to travel so far to be there. I always looked forward to catching up with him and enjoying a few drinks and good meals before heading back home where the kinds of stimulating conversations that Mark and I had about our interest in everyday life in communist Eastern Europe are just about impossible. We've all lost a great mind and an amazing human being.
Kimberly Elman Zarecor, Department of Architecture, Iowa State University
I am so sorry to hear this awful news. I only met Mark once, when we had a memorable dinner after a seminar. Mark was not only great company, but also generous to a fault with his extraordinary expertise on scholarship on East Central Europe. I was very much looking forward to meeting him again, and am greatly saddened to hear of his death.
Mark's research was an example to all of us working on East Central Europe. His book, Eastern Europe 1939-2000 is an outstanding achievement - clear, comprehensive, and astonishingly well-informed.
Mark was also a valued contributor and friend of the journal Contemporary European History, not only writing two important articles himself, but also providing numerous constructive and insightful readers' reports on the articles submitted to the journal. The last one was completed just a few weeks ago. We will miss him hugely.
Josie McLellan, University of Bristol
Like Melissa Feinberg, I met Mark in Boca Raton, during the Hurricane Conference of 1998. Though I did not know him well, I enjoyed seeing him and hearing his witty and fascinating papers at AAASS. When I heard the news I immediately thought of Mark as a person who thought beyond borders, in his work and as a colleague. He worked to make connections among British, American and Central European scholars. These tributes from all over the world testify to that. I am truly sorry for the loss, and send my best to those of you who knew Mark better than I did.
Cynthia Paces, The College of New Jersey
I find it very difficult to grasp this news. I can't claim to have known Mark well but on the few occasions I met him, mainly to discuss the Cold War history in Central Europe, but so much more besides, I found him immensely humorous, gentle and of course very perceptive. I'm writing this from Vienna where before I heard the dreadful news several Hungarians told me how much they knew and liked Mark. They also appreciated his immense knowledge of his subject, and his brilliant Hungarian. One called him only part joking, "the last Englishman to master Hungarian." He will be sadly missed.
Robert Knight, Loughborough University
Mark was a great supporter of our project over several years and, most recently, was the leader of a Team trialling new ways of supporting Arts & Humanities students at the Open University. Mark was passionate about his subject but also about making the teaching and learning offered to students by the OU the best it could be. Our project will miss his thoughtfulness, insights and intelligent enquiry. Personally, Mark was a wonderful, kind person and he will be sorely missed by all of us.
The Student Support Review project, The Open University, Nikki, Rachel, Roddy, Dawn and Anne
I am a student who has only just completed the course AAZX300 'Europe: Culture and Identities in a Contested Context'. I am grateful for the highly informative material Mark contributed to this course. Kind thoughts go out to your family to lose one so young and talented must be quite a shock.
Colleen Reynolds, OU student, London
