He is known as founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program,[citation needed] established the International Systems Institute in 1982,[1] and was co-founder of the General Evolutionary Research Group in 1984.

When Russia invaded Hungary in April 1945, he and his family fled to Allied-occupied Austria and lived in a displaced persons camp for six years.

Within the year his former commanding officer suggested to the U.S. government that they hire Bánáthy as a Hungarian instructor at the Army Language School in Monterey, California.

The Boy Scouts of America's Wood Badge and junior leader training programs had until then focused primarily on Scoutcraft skills, not leadership.

After 20 years, Bánáthy left the renamed Defense Language Institute and went to work for the Far West Laboratory for Research and Development in Berkeley and later San Francisco.

He retired from Far West in 1989 but maintained an active interest in social systems and science, including attending many conferences and advising students and others in those fields.

[8] In 1941, Bánáthy's unit advanced as part of German Army Group South to within 140 kilometres (87 mi) of Moscow, during a severe November ice storm.

[5][10] Bánáthy was promoted as a junior officer of the Royal Hungarian Army and served on the faculty of the Ludovika Akademia under his mentor, Commandant Colonel-General Kisbarnaki General Farkas.

Bánáthy's family and others of the remainder of his and other military units made their way west, along with tens of thousands of other refugees, about 250 kilometres (160 mi) into Austria, trying to stay ahead of advancing Russian troops.

As the war ended and Austria was occupied in April 1945 by the French, British, Soviet and US military forces, the family was placed in an Allied displaced persons camp.

Beginning in early 1948, when the Cold War ensued, it became virtually impossible for refugees or displaced persons to cross from the border of one country into another, or even from one Occupation Zone to another.

[5][23][12] In 1949, with help from a Swiss foundation, Bánáthy assisted in establishing and was selected as the President of the Collegium Hungaricum, a boarding school for refugees, at Zell am See near Saalfelden, Austria.

Seven-year-old Béla and six-year-old László Banathy, along with their Pallendal grandmother and two aunts, were put aboard a freight train and sent toward Russia.

[citation needed] In January, 1951, the student body of the Presbyterian McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago sponsored Béla, Eva, Tibor and Robert Banathy as refugees to the United States.

His wife found work as a machine operator and Tibor, their third son, entered American public school.

After nine years of separation, and repeated failures to get his sons repatriated from behind the Iron Curtain, Bánáthy obtained help from Dr. Eugene Blake, President of the National Council of Churches; Representative Charles M. Teague; Ernest Nagy, Vice Consul in the U.S. Legation in Budapest; Hulda Neiburh of the McCormick Theological Seminary; and Howard Pyle, deputy assistant to President Dwight D.

[26] He was finally able to arrange for 13-year-old Béla and 11-year-old László to emigrate to the United States[5] A photograph of the two boys greeting their mother was featured in Life Magazine.

Carrying pictures of their parents, two Hungarian brothers arrived at New York International Airport, Idlewild, Queens, yesterday...

The boys' release marked the first time since the Cold War that anyone under 65 years old had been allowed to leave Hungary to be reunited with family.

[22][independent source needed] "Lord Baden-Powell was my personal idol and I long felt a commitment to give back to Scouting what I had received", Bánáthy said.

[23] As part of his master's degree program in counseling psychology at San José State University, he wrote a thesis titled "A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting".

[28] This book described the founding principles of the White Stag program, which was later adapted by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

[29] Prior to Bánáthy's work, the adult Wood Badge and the junior leader training programs had focused on teaching Scoutcraft skills and some aspects of the Patrol Method.

Among them was William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, who had been the first United States Wood Badge Course Director in 1948.

He was adamant that Wood Badge should continue to teach Scoutcraft skills and tried to persuade the national council to stick to that tradition, but his objections were ignored.

[22] The leadership competencies Banathy articulated became the de facto method for Scout adult and junior leader training.

In 1960, the Monterey Bay Area Council recognized Béla for his exceptional service to youth and awarded him the Silver Beaver.

[5] In the 1960s Bánáthy began teaching courses in applied linguistics and systems science at San José State University.