Irma Keméndy  Irma Keméndy (10 April 1838 – 19 March 1912) was a Hungarian teacher who operated a girls' boarding school, and later a high school in Szeged. She opened one of the first normal schools in the area and taught for over 40 years in Hungary. She was the recipient of the of Austria-Hungary, in recognition of her social contributions. Irma Mária Drucker was born on 10 April 1838 at the Károly Barracks Hospital, now the building housing the Budapest City Hall, during the great flood in Pest, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire. She was the daughter of József Drucker, and sister of József Jr., a lawyer and mayor of several Hungarian cities, including Szeged, Székesfehérvár, and Sopron. After completing her primary education in Pest, Drucker attended the normal school, Sancta Maria Intézetének (Institute of Saint Mary) run by the Congregation of Jesus in Budapest, graduating in 1858. Shortly after graduating, Drucker took a post as a teacher at the private school of Izabella Malocsay in Szeged, where she worked until 1862. Her brother had become the mayor of Szeged and introduced Drucker to the widower Nándor Keméndy (née Ferdinánd Gebhardt), whose first wife had died in 1859. On 12 May 1861, the couple married and the following year their son Béla was born. On 1 September 1862, Keméndy opened a private girls' boarding school in her home to teach first to fourth grade students. In 1863, Keméndy relocated the boarding school to Sziráky House at 2 Kelemen Street and a year later, it moved to Korona Street. The school was very popular among the upper classes of the town and attracted wide attendance, sometimes reaching over 100 pupils in a single term. By 1869, she expanded the curricula to include both fifth and sixth terms and was attracting students from Serbian and German communities in the southern part of the country. In 1875, she added a three-year normal school to train women teachers. She relocated her residence and the boarding school to 77 Tisza Lajos Boulevard and the normal school operated around the corner on Subotica Avenue. In December, Adele Zay joined Keméndy's staff as a teacher of geography, English and German languages, and mathematics and would remain there until 1884.