Architect, businessman, benefactor (B.1907 – D.5 March
2000, Bolu). He was the fourth and the youngest son of Officer Ahmet Canip
Efendi, who was a graduate of Ottoman Junior High School, and Hafiz Behiye Hanım, who was from Alpagut, a village
in Bolu. He completed his elementary and secondary school in Bolu, and then he
attended Mekteb-i Sultan-i Nefise, now named as Mimar Sinan
University. Upon his
father’s death in 1927, he had trouble in his education as he had to both make
a living and finish his school. In 1931, he graduated as an architect.
Beginning his official duty in the Directorate of Public Works in Bolu as an
architect, İzzet Baysal, together with a few friends, designed the construction
plan of the district of Gerede in 1932. Then, he started working as the
architect of the Undersecretariat of Ministry of National Air Defense in Ankara. In the meantime,
he coordinated the construction of Eskişehir
Airport. In 1934, he
resigned from his post, and became the Technical Works Supervisor of the Municipality of Eskişehir. In the same year, he married
his first wife Refika
Pınar from Çanakkale, who served
as a geography teacher in Eskişehir
High School. In 1936, he
became self-employed in Ankara,
where he designed the mansions of the Representative of Azerbaijan Sadri
Maksudi Arsal and the Custodian of Medina Fahrettin Pasha. He completed his military service in 1942, which he started in 1939 in Afyon, the same
year his wife Refika Hanım passed away.
Hereon,
İzzet Baysal closed down his business, and in 1943, he settled in Istanbul. He purchased a
sanitary installation and hardware store in Perşembe bazaar in Karaköy. In the meantime, he ran a small atelier producing door
latches. In 1950, he established the first Mechanized Casting Factory of
private sector in Turkey.
Patriotism lies at the heart of this enterprise, as Baysal showed great
sensitivity against the import of ‘pipe connection parts’, which he sold in his
store. Therefore, he visited Germany
twice to conduct research about the related technology.
In the first run, he received negative responses as
to the factory he founded and ran in great difficulties. In Europe, the Cartel
producing the same parts did their best to impede this enterprise, and they
made a 40% discount on the goods they exported to Turkey. However, Baysal struggled
hard and maintained to keep his factory running by making it an exporting plant
to Austria, Germany, Greece, and Arab countries in the
1970s. Starting to run in 1951 under the name of 'İzzet Baysal Casting Industrial Institution’,
the enterprise was turned into a family corporation in 1957, and the name was
later changed to İzsal Döküm Sanayii A.Ş.' (İzsal Casting Industry Casting Inc.)
İzzet Baysal, working actively in the company until 1980, established İzzet
Baysal Foundation in 1986 after he lost his second wife Nafize Hanım. In 1994, he leased out his factory and quit business
activities by devoting all his efforts to the services of İzzet Baysal
Foundation. He established İzzet Baysal
University, carrying his
own name, and he continued his services until his death on the date of 5 March
2000.
