In 2011, the year of his retirement, the University of Navarra awarded Alejandro Llano the Gold Medal in recognition of the extraordinary services he had rendered. However, upon receiving it, it was he who expressed his gratitude. He confessed that "here I have often brushed with the tips of my fingers that which is so difficult to achieve in this world, and which I dare to call happiness".

These were not the words of a naïve person or of someone unaware of the shadows that loom over the university institution. On the contrary, already in his speeches as President in the 1990s and the book La Universidad ante lo nuevo he warned of the danger of substituting the logic of fecundity, characteristic of everything alive, for that of efficacy, characteristic of inert systems and procedures. For him, the good health of Education depended on that peculiar form of friendship that arises from the intellectual community between professors and students.

Since his university days in Valencia in the 1970s, he boasted a certain rebellious attitude towards power. Perhaps that is why in his last years as a professor he promoted a rebellion loyal to the Republic of Letters consisting of "reading, meeting and talking", activities that were beginning to be countercultural in the campus. This happiness, which he came close to, was nourished by the long hours devoted to study and conversation. It was common knowledge that the safest way to find him was to go to his table at Library Services. If he was not there, he must have been with a student, PhD student or professor.

Full Professor his dedication to knowledge was never merely theoretical or abstract. Those of us who approached him discovered a deep humanity that manifested itself in his predilection for people with illnesses or problems of all kinds subject, especially economic ones, whom he welcomed with paternal pity. Furthermore, he considered that the University could not remain aloof from social problems; hence his interest in the public discussion and participation in civic initiatives.

Towards the end of Caminos de la Philosophy, a book interview on his philosophical work, we asked him if, after having spent so many years studying the structure of the world and its origin in God, he was not curious to see what the afterlife was like. He answered immediately, with a certain mockery: "The truth is that I'm not curious, because it seems that you want to die to see. I have hope, the hope that God will welcome me in spite of the pains. I wouldn't mind continuing a little longer with this 'vulgarity' down here. I'm in no hurry."

Although he was concerned about the drift of the higher Education , his career is a resounding lie to those who believe that the University has ceased to be the home of knowledge and a place of friendship. The fruitfulness of lives like Alejandro Llano's keeps the flame of hope alive.