Ivan Hričovský (23 January 1932 – 2 July 2024) was a Slovak pomologist and celebrity gardener. He was widely seen as the founding father of modern gardening in Slovakia and towards the end of his life enjoyed widespread popularity in traditional and social media.

Early life and education

Ivan Hričovský was born on 23 January 1932 in the village of

Horný Hričov Horný Hričov () is a village and municipality in Žilina District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia. History In history, historical records the village was first mentioned in 1208. Geography The municipality lies at an altitude of 31 ...

Žilina District Žilina District () is an ''okres'' (district) of the Žilina Region in north-western Slovakia. The district was first established in 1923. Its present borders date from 1996. The heart of the district is the Váh and Rajec river valleys. Urbaniza ...

. He studied at the Lednice campus Faculty of Horticulture of the Mendel University in Brno, graduating in 1955.

Career

Following graduation, Hričovský worked in applied research of fruit cultivation at various

agricultural cooperatives An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a producer cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activities. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural servic ...

. He cultivated two new variants of

blackcurrant The blackcurrant (''Ribes nigrum''), also known as black currant or cassis, is a deciduous shrub in the family Grossulariaceae grown for its edible berries. It is native to temperate parts of central and northern Europe and northern Asia, w ...

. In 1989 he became a professor at the Slovak University of Agriculture, where he taught until his retirement in 2009. Hričovský gained mass following only towards the end of his academic career. This was predominantly due to his recurrent appearances in the Farmer's revue program on the public broadcaster Slovak Television and Radio, aired since 2007. He also wrote 14 popular books about gardening, which sold over 150,000 copies. In addition, Hričovský published an annual gardening calendar, which sold about 25,000 copies yearly. His gardening

Facebook page Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of ...

had over 145,000 followers.

Death

Ivan Hričovský died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

at a hospital in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, on 2 July 2024, at the age of 92. According to an

obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...

published in the

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

newspaper, Hričovský was one of the last personalities enjoying universal popularity in a deeply divided Slovak society. The president of Slovakia

Peter Pellegrini Peter Pellegrini (; born 6 October 1975) is a Slovak politician who is serving as the sixth president of Slovakia since 2024. He previously served as prime minister of Slovakia from 2018 to 2020. Pellegrini also served as the Minister of Health, ...

as well as the minister of agriculture Richard Takáč paid homage to his accomplishments after his death. The Slovak Television and Radio scheduled an extraordinary episode of the Farmer's revue devoted to the memory of Hričovský to be aired on 6 July.

Awards

In 2006, Hričovský was awarded an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

by his

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

, the Mendel University. In 2010, he was awarded the

Order of Ľudovít Štúr The Order of Ľudovít Štúr () is the third highest Slovak state decoration (after the Order of the White Double Cross and the Orders, decorations, and medals of Slovakia#Andrej Hlinka Order, Order of Andrej Hlinka) conferred by the President ...

, 2nd class by the president of Slovakia Ivan Gašparovič.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hricovsky, Ivan 1932 births 2024 deaths Gardeners People from Žilina District Mendel University in Brno alumni Deaths from pneumonia in Slovakia