It was with great surprise and no less sadness that I received the news of the death of Alban d'Entremont, Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Navarra. He was born on March 24, 1950 in Yarmouth (Nova Scotia, Canada) and died on July 27 in Pamplona.

I met Alban in the first year of degree program and from then on he was my teacher in several subjects throughout licentiate degree. At class, Alban was a professor different from all the others. Not very attached to following an inflexible program of the subject, he took advantage of any experience staff -particularly those coming from his numerous trips to different countries and continents- to expose with mastery, irony and a great sense of humor geographical concepts that were part of the subject. Thus, in addition to making the classes very enjoyable, his students always had the impression of traveling with him, of being very close witnesses of everything that Alban experienced in first person. He also made his Canadian origin and love for his native land clear at the very beginning. Not many sessions passed before all his students knew how to perfectly situate Nova Scotia on the map, how to handle the geography of the Gulf of Maine and knew the Economics, the history and even the character of the inhabitants of Yarmouth, his small hometown.

Years later, when I became a professor at department, I had the opportunity to get to know other facets of Alban: as a colleague at academic staff and as director of department of Geography and Spatial Planning for seventeen years. In this stage and in the following years -until his retirement from academic life in 2015- I shared subjects, some projects of research and many hours of coexistence in the heart of the board of department, in the offices and in the celebrations that we had to share. There I got to know Alban better, got to know him better and witnessed his professional career as a demographer and his family life.

After having lived with him for almost four decades and as a colophon of this obituary, I would like to highlight two facets of Alban. First, he was a great conversationalist. I think he loved nothing so much as talking to colleagues and students. And even with the pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, who crossed the university campus and with whom he brought out his mastery of different languages. This was helped by the endless catalog of anecdotes and events that he had, the result of his travels and a fine capacity for observation. Nothing escaped his attention and he knew how to make fun of everything, with his continuous witty tone, which made any conversation interesting and amusing.

Also worthy of accredited specialization is his passion for his family. For Teresa, his wife, and for his children and grandchildren. We saw Eduardo, Monica and Miguel grow up through his visits to the University, when with any excuse they would accompany their father to the office. And the latter, Alban - like any self-respecting grandfather - "introduced" them to us at each fortuitous meeting or at each visit. He didn't make himself long: at every opportunity he took the opportunity to show us his photographs and tell us some of his witticisms. At all times, he was deeply proud of the family.

Rest in peace, dear Alban.