NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA
Mon, 31/05/2010 – 07:57
Deceased: José Manuel Casas Torres, master of Spanish geography
José Manuel Casas Torres.
Photo: Eugenio Zúñiga
Professor José Manuel Casas Torres, 93, creator of modern Spanish geography and a professor at the Universidad de Zaragoza and Universidad Complutense in Madrid, passed away on May 30, in Madrid. He was also a professor at the Universidad de Navarra. In his lectures he promoted the “region” as a space linking the State and the province, and had a key role in modernising Spanish cartography.
Casas Torres was born in Valencia on October 26, 1916. He dedicated most of his life to teaching and research, and many of his students consider him one of the masters of Spanish geography.
He was a Director at the Institute for Applied Geography [Instituto de Geografía Aplicada] of the Superior Council for Scientific Research [Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas] and also the Geography Departament at the Universidad Complutense, where he worked from 1965 to 1983. He combined his retirement with research and a generous availability to his students. He was a member of Opus Dei since 1939, and the eldest living member of the Work at the time of his death.
He met St Josemaría Escrivá in July 1939 and became a member of Opus Dei on July 14, 1939. St Josemaría’s teachings about the universal call to sanctity, the consideration of work as a means of service to society and of helping people reached him, and he felt the call to this endeavour in Opus Dei.
At the Universidad de Zaragoza he created the studies in Geography, and was the founder of the Geographica review, at the same time heading the Department of Applied Geography and being the Vice-Director of the Institute for Pirenaic Studies [Instituto de Estudios Pirenáicos].
He specialised in applied Geography, and in local, urban and population Geography, and occupied the first tenured position in that speciality. Manuel Ferrer Regales, who was one of his students at the Universidad de Navarra, stressed “the generosity of his teaching and research, and his concern for the anthropological and doctrinal content of his topics, which led him to concentrate his studies in population and demographics”.
Among other works, it is worth noting: The Fourth World Conference on Women: a comment [La Cuarta Conferencia Mundial sobre la Mujer: un comentario], Population, Development and Quality of Life [Población, desarrollo y calidad de vida], Descriptive Geography [Geografía descriptiva], General Geography [Geografía general], History of Political Economy of Aragon [Historia de la economía política de Aragón] co-authored with Ignacio Jordán de Asso y del Río, and Train Entrances to Madrid: Their Impact on the Urban Geography of the City [Los accesos ferroviarios a Madrid: su impacto en la geografía urbana de la ciudad], with María Pilar González Yanci.
Original posting: Fallece José Manuel Casas Torres, Maestro de la Geografía española
José Manuel Casas Torres, eldest member of Opus Dei, deceased.
June 2nd, 2010
6 Comments
Thanks for posting! Am sure you’ve had to translate to English. I’m praying for his soul…but also I’ve begun going to his intercession, for the many concerns I have in the university…
GRACIAS ANTONIO:POR TAN CALUROSA DESCRIPCCIONDEL DIFUNTO
ASEGURATE DE MIS HUMILDES ORACIONES POR SU ALMA
PAX ET BONAM ANTONIO LOSADA
[...] See the original post here: José Manuel Casas Torres, eldest member of Opus Dei, deceased … [...]
Antonio González remembers José Manuel Casas Torres
Posted: 03 Jun 2010 @ http://www.opusdeialdia.org
José Manuel Casas Torres passed away last Sunday. On Monday, I posted the following messge on my FaceBook and Twitter profiles:
I just returned from the interment of D. José Manuel Casas Torres, who passed away yesterday, at 93. He was the person with most years as a member of Opus Dei: since 1939. We were neighbours when I was little, and I remember him as an ever smiling and gentle man.
I would like to thank you all for your support messages on various media.
I keep a very edifying memory of him. When I was a child, there was a centre of Opus Dei in the next door building, where José Manuel lived. He was a friend of my father’s (who is not a member of the Work), as both were professors at the Universidad de Navarra. And he used to come home to have a cup of coffee. He always gave bonbons or candy to us children (my brothers and me).
He transmitted peace: he was always smiling, ever calm, alway happy and positive. I have frequently thought I’d love to be like him.
The doorman in my building used to tell me that, when D José Manuel, at
almost 90, used to return home late in the evening, and he always tried to help our doorman if he found him taking out the trash, although our doorman used to resist his efforts.
I once tried to give this same doorman a prayer card of St Josemaría, in case he didn’t know this saint. To my surprise, he told me D. José Manuel had already given him a book on this saint… and showed it to me. He took my card to use as a page marker.
By the end of his life, he was losing his mind: he wouldn’t even remember the Hail Mary and didn’t recognised people.
On Monday, I went to his funeral, with my parents and some of my brothers. He has left a lasting impression on all of us.
@Dolores Salmela: Yes please, go ahead.
@Wendy: you may also put the entire translation in the Forum, then make a link to it in the blog article itself.
Thanks,
-Aliza
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