Udvardy (Miklos D. F.) papers

Miklos D.F. (Dezso Ferenc) Udvardy (1919-1998) Also Miklos “Nick” Udvardy. He was born in Debrecen, Hungary, on March 23, 1919. His mother was Elizabeth Komlossy and his father was Miklos Udvardy. His wife was Maud Bjorklund and they were married on Feb 11, 1951 and had three children: Beatrix, Andrew, and Monica.

Udvardy settled on a career in ornithology when he was 7, after his grandfather gave him a book about birds. His father wanted him to study law. After studying law for two years he then switched to studying Biology. He earned a Doctorate in 1942 from Debrecen University in Hungary. Udvardy's first position was a research biologist at the Tihanyi Biological Station on Lake Balaton in western Hungary. He spent WWII in occupied Hungary but escaped conscription by German forces. He fled Hungary in 1948 when he was warned of a communist takeover. He then secured a postdoctoral fellowship at Helsinki University, Finland.

By 1950 he moved to Uppsala, Sweden and met his wife Maud. He was briefly a curator of Marine Invertebrates at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. After getting married in 1951, the Udvardys immigrated to Canada and Udvardy began working at the University of British Columbia in 1952? as an assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology, teaching comparative anatomy and ornithology. He remained at UBC until 1966. While there he sponsored 12 master’s and 6 doctoral students. He then taught at the California State University, Sacramento from 1967-1991. He was a Professor of Biological Sciences. He sponsored 8 graduate students.

He also had a visiting professorship at the University of Hawaii (1958-1959); Lida Scott Brown Lecturer in Ornithology at the University of California, Los Angeles (1963-1964); Visiting professor at the University of Bonn, Germany; and Fulbright Lecturer at the National University of Honduras.

In retirement, Udvardy was a consultant for International Union for Conservation of Nature and Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). He also spent time on his ranch, Trollbegerg (“Troll Hill” in Swedish) with his cow herd. Miklos D. F. Udvardy passed away on January 27, 1998.

Dr. Udvardy contributed 191 papers, 8 books, and 3 maps to scientific literature, mostly in the fields of ornithology, biogeography, and vegetation classification.

Examples of his published works include: “The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Region (1977)”; “Dynamic Zoogeography (1969)”; and other Ornithological articles.

Udvardy was fluent in 6 languages – English, German, Swedish, Spanish, some French and his native Hungarian. He could read Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian.