José Manuel Casas Torres, master of Spanish Geography, dies
Professor José Manuel Casas Torres, creator of modern Spanish Geography and Full Professor at the universities of Zaragoza and Complutense, died on May 30 in Madrid at the age of 93. He was also Extraordinary Professor of the University of Navarra. In his work professor he promoted the region as a space between the State and the province, and played a decisive role in the modernization of Spanish cartography.
Casas Torres was born in Valencia on October 26, 1916 and dedicated many years to teaching and research, with the training of numerous disciples, who consider him one of the great masters of Spanish geography.
He directed the high school of Applied Geography of the committee Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and the department of Geography of the Complutense University, where he worked from 1965 to 1983. He combined his retirement with the research and a full availability towards his students. He belonged to Opus Dei since 1939 and was currently the oldest member of the Work.
He met St. Josemaría Escrivá in July 1939 and became a member of Opus Dei on July 14, 1939. The universal call to holiness in the midst of the world, seeing work as a means to serve society and to help people, convinced him and he felt called to this task in Opus Dei.
At the University of Zaragoza he created the specialization program of Geography and founded the journal Geographica, as well as directing the department of Applied Geography and being vice-director of the high school of programs of study Pyrenees.
Specialist in Applied Geography, Local, Urban and Population Geography, he occupied the first specific Chair of that specialization program. Manuel Ferrer Regales, one of his disciples at the University of Navarra, emphasized "the generosity of his teaching and research, as well as his concern for the anthropological and doctrinal background of the subjects, which led him to study in a particular way what was related to population and demography".
His works include "La Cuarta lecture Mundial sobre la Mujer: un comentario", "Población, development y calidad de vida", "Geografía descriptiva", "Geografía general", "Historia de la Economics política de Aragón", with Ignacio Jordán de Asso y del Río, and "Los accesos ferroviarios a Madrid: su impacto en la geografía urbana de la ciudad", with María Pilar González Yanci.