Jani – as everyone in Novi Bečej called him – trained as a merchant and worked as a tradesman until the end of World War II. He was very hardworking, modest, and honest. He deserves to be remembered for his conscientious work and his approach to the citizens during his tenure as the president, and later long-time vice president, of the Novi Bečej municipality after World War II.
While leading the Novi Bečej municipality, he remained just as kind and gentle as he was in his youth when he worked as an assistant merchant for Đura Krstić, where a polite attitude towards customers was nurtured. He maintained that same attitude towards every citizen of Novi Bečej who approached him with their problems while he was the head of the municipality. It is rare to meet such people who are not influenced by "authority," but remain natural and unchanged, treating everyone, familiar or unfamiliar, with correctness, care, and courtesy. For his work, he was awarded the Order of Labor with a Silver Wreath.
Despite his many responsibilities as head of the municipality and later as the director of the mill, where he oversaw significant investments in the construction of a large silo, Jani also actively participated in the work of the Volunteer Fire Department. He didn’t serve as just an ordinary member but as the president of the Firefighting Association of the Novi Bečej Municipality. During his presidency, the fire department in Novi Bečej received its newly constructed and well-equipped Fire Station. For his work, he was honored by the Firefighting Association of Yugoslavia with the Firefighting Star, 1st Class.
He was very musical. He played the violin and the cimbalom and, in his youth, led the Merchant Youth Orchestra, achieving great success at Sokol gatherings. After the war, he organized the "Petefi" orchestra, which he also led.
Jani was not satisfied with just working in musical ensembles; he also wanted to improve the work of amateur theater troupes, which he worked with until his death. For his work in the theater section, he was awarded a violin and a gold ring in 1957, and in 1975, he was honored with a medal that reads: "1945-1975. Amateur Theater Novi Bečej."
In his younger years, he played chess, where, as in all other areas of his activity, he achieved particularly noteworthy results for our local circumstances. He was the best chess player in Novi Bečej until World War II when Stari Pal joined him with his excellent games. In correspondence chess, which was quite popular between the two world wars through the daily press, Jani, one year, shared first place in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
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