Emil Mika and Józefina Mika, nee Machaj, are personages with close links to education in Lipnica.

Emil Mika was born in Lipnica Wielka in 1896. He also spent his childhood there. His entire family moved to Slovakia after World War I. Emil stayed in Lipnica. He developed extensive social, economic and cultural activities there. He worked with children, organised a course for illiterate people and taught basic mathematics and modern housekeeping. He had always been interested in folklore. Many works faithfully demonstrating the richness of Orawa rituals emerged as a result. He managed the ‘Orawa’ regional ensemble and became famous as a collector of folk songs. The result was the collection of ‘Pieśni orawskie’ (Orawa Songs) published in 1934. The tutor from Lipnica was a man of many talents. He was interested in technical novelties, he built a small power plant, a decoder and a two-way radio by himself.

He became the commander of the Secret Military Organization before the outbreak of World War II. He had to leave his home village after Orawa was annexed by Slovakia. He was a lieutenant in the Union of Armed Struggle. He was responsible for the radio communications with the command in London. The Gestapo arrested him on 4 May 1941 and he was imprisoned in the German concentration camp in Auschwitz where he died after a few months.

Józefina Mika nee Machaj was born in Jabłonka in 1897. Her brothers Karol, Eugeniusz and Ferdynand were significant influences on her attitude and personality. Józefina had a very strong personality, was outspoken and good with people. She was fluent in Hungarian, Slovak and Polish, and was also quite good at Czech and German.

She was actively involved in the independence movement during World War I and devoted herself entirely to work concerning national, cultural and educational issues. In 1922 she married Emil Mika whose interests and efforts were similar. She worked on the development of co-operatives in Orava, especially in Lipnica, and organised trips to different regions of Poland.

During World War II, she was the general quartermaster of Army of the South and a liaison officer in Krakow. She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 and imprisoned in the Montelupich prison in Krakow. Her imprisonment lasted a year and a half. She was killed by an injection of phenol on 14 October 1942.