Ihsan Sıtkı Yener was born in Afyon in 1925. He graduated from İzmir Commercial High School in 1942 and from Istanbul Higher Institute of Economics and Commerce in 1946 (later known as the Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences). In 1957 he completed his master’s degree in measurement and evaluation at the Business Administration department of New York University in the United States and earned his doctorate in 1958 in educational methods and research and development at the same university’s Business Education department.

Yener began his teaching career in 1946 at Sultanahmet Commercial High School where he taught typewriting stenography and vocational subjects. He also taught at numerous institutions including Beyoğlu Commercial High School Eyüp Commercial High School Galatasaray High School Naval and Army Logistics Schools and the Law and Economics Faculties of Istanbul University. He retired from Sultanahmet Commercial High School in 1977.

In the field of specialized education he founded the Typewriter Secretary Courses in 1954. Over time these courses became known as “Champion Typewriter Secretary and Computer Courses” and were officially registered with the Ministry of National Education and the Turkish Patent Institute.

Efforts to develop a keyboard layout suitable for the Turkish language began in the 1930s. Yener conducted the most comprehensive research in this area. In 1955 a letter arrangement suitable for Turkish was developed based on statistical analyses of 30 000 Turkish words. This keyboard designed according to the ten-finger method was officially adopted as the “Standard Turkish Keyboard” (F Keyboard) by the Interministerial Standardization Committee on 20 October 1955. It gained official status in 1963 through an article added to the Customs Law and was declared a mandatory standard by the Turkish Standards Institute in 1974.

In 1947 Yener organized the first Istanbul Typewriting Championship and in 1948 the first Turkey Typewriting Championship. These championships were held annually. In 1993 he organized the 40th World Stenography Typewriting and Computer Championship and the Intersteno Congress in Istanbul. By 2004 Turkey had won a total of 17 world records and over 80 medals with 34 competitors.

Between 1946 and 1950 Yener adapted the French Duployée Aimée Paris and Prevost Delaunay systems to Turkish. Between 1952 and 1955 he developed Turkish stenography based on the rules of the English Pitman system. In 1958 through an agreement with McGraw-Hill Corporation’s Gregg Division he adapted the Gregg system to Turkish and introduced it into education between 1958 and 1962. In the 1990s he collaborated with companies based in Bulgaria and the United States to adapt computer-assisted machine stenography to Turkish.

In 1957 Yener facilitated Türkiye’s membership in the International Federation of Information Processing and Communication affiliated with the United Nations (INTERSTENO). He served as Türkiye’s representative and as a member of the Central Committee. In 1991 he was elected President of INTERSTENO. Following the 1993 organization in Istanbul he was named Honorary President. At the 2003 Intersteno Congress in Rome during a ceremony attended by 36 countries he was presented as the “Honorary President who made the greatest contributions to the development of Intersteno.”

In 1955 he published the first monthly professional journal in Türkiye titled Sekreter Daktilograf. In addition to the books Stenography Lessons and Turkish Gregg Stenography he prepared textbooks such as Computer Use with Ten Fingers student practice forms and a teacher’s guide which were used in Champion Courses.

• 1987: “Socio Onorario” title from the Academy of Stenography and Typewriting in Florence Italy
• 1997: Career Grand Prize from the Fair Play Council of the Turkish National Olympic Committee
• 2003: Title of “Father of the F Keyboard” (Information Technology Days)
• 2007: Most Successful Teacher Plaque from Şişli Municipality
• 2009: Award for Encouraging Scientific Research from Ümraniye Municipality
• 2009: Ministry of National Education Honorary Plaque (after the Beijing World Championship)

Ihsan Sıtkı Yener passed away in Istanbul on 2 September 2016.