MEMORY EXERCISES

  CUPRINS:
  PREZENTARE:
Academicianull profesor doctor inginer Gleb Dragan ne dă prin această carte o superioară lecţie de demnitate în faţa vieţii, de rezistenţă la izbiturile nemiloase ce-l aşteptau la răscruce de vânturi. Avem în faţă în pofida a toate câte a trăit şi îndurat, o fiinţă care rămâne optimistă, răscolitoare şi silitoare, exemplară prin forţa de a înainta sub vremuri, urmându-şi şi acceptându-şi destinul.

The academician, professor, doctor in engineering, Gleb Dragan gives us through this book a superior lesson in the dignity needed to face life, in resilience to the unmerciful blows which waited for him at life’s crossroads. We have in front of us a human being who despite all he lived and endured continued to remain optimistic, searching and diligent. He is an exemplary force advancing through time following and accepting his destiny.
  PREFATA:
On the Polizu Campus of the Polytechnic University of
Bucharest one could easily identify Professor Gleb Dragan. Upright,
he walks straight ahead; his face is of particular distinction. His hair
impeccably combed, his gaze piercing forward. He looks like an
image on a medal. I would run into him crossing the not so large
courtyard, on the way to class, or most often as he was making his
way lost in thought towards the building which housed the High
Voltage Laboratory. During my student years his paths intersected
with the resounding names of the post war period, names which
became milestones of the Romanian University erudition.
Higher mathematics were taught by Constantin Ionescu-Bujor,
Gheorghe Simionescu, Haralambie Ionescu-Bis, Mihai Sudan; at the
Department of Physics one found Petre Barca Galateanu and Ion
Agarbiceanu; at the Department of Electronics taught with the
fullness of maturity Tudor Tanasescu, Gheorghe Cartianu, Cornel
Penescu and the upcoming young faculty members Mihai
Draganescu and Gheorghe Rulea. Mechanics was taught on different
floors by Elie Carafoli, Radu Voinea, Gheorghe Buzdugan, Gheorghe
Manea, Constantin Arama, Lazar Stoicescu. At the Department of
Chemistry ruled with authority Costin Nenitescu, Elena Cioranescu,
Al. Balaban, Serban Salacolu, Emilian Bratu. The departments of
electro-technics and energetics benefited from the prestige of Remus
Radulet, Dorin Pavel, Constantin Dinculescu, Mitu Dumitrescu,
Mastin Bercovici, Constantin Budeanu, I. S. Antoniu, Al. Popescu,
I.S. Gheorghiu. At the Metallurgy Department worked Traian
Negrescu, Stefan Mantea, Alexandru Rau, M. Iorga, St. Dumitrascu
next to them came up the subsequent generation - Oprea, Tripsa,
Dulamita, Geru, Sofronie, Oprescu, Vacu, Nicolae Popescu.
This is the milieu in which professor Gleb Dragan exercised
over many decades the art of communicating with his students. This
is the atmosphere in which the teacher and researcher expressed
himself. This is the space in which he lived and dedicated himself to
instruct the specialists meant to disseminate their knowledge
throughout the country.
One would not have suspected that this man, calm and serene in
everything he undertook, could carry inside his soul so many
tribulations and suffering. Having been born in a corner of Romania
exposed to all sort of storms, blizzards, and severe cold, the studious
young man was intended by history to travel paths covered with
uncertainty and suffering.
In a sustained memory exercise Professor Gleb Dragan invites
us in these pages to accompany him through a sad parenthesis of
human existence. He and his family had to pay unimaginable tolls
both unwanted and unfair. Now, having arrived at an elderly age, the
school boy, the student, the young man of years passed brings forth
painful scenes. He does this without pretension, in a whisper, and we
the people of today learn of the realities of yesteryears - oppressing,
brutal, poisoning, with lasting toxic effects. We are told about the sad
historical parentheses which he had to endure all the while yearning
that the world should know about it. Full of details, scrupulous in all
he communicates, the text he puts in front of us stops us in our tracks
to ask ourselves “How was it possible How can one suffer so much
in one life Who can bring back the good that was lost, the family
warmth, and the serenity of an age unmercifully destroyed by fate
The reader is invited to observe the refinement with which the
author is always careful to address the fragility, the love born in
6 Acad. GLEB DRĂGAN
searching for his parents, his twin brother, or his sister from whom
he was forced to be separated. These utterances born out of the
affection for one’s own are of the most precious kind and reflect an
exemplary trust in life itself.
The academician, professor, doctor in engineering, Gleb
Dragan gives us through this book a superior lesson in the dignity
needed to face life, in resilience to the unmerciful blows which waited
for him at life’s crossroads. We have in front of us a human being
who despite all he lived and endured continued to remain optimistic,
searching and diligent. He is an exemplary force advancing through
time following and accepting his destiny.
Neagu Udroiu
  CUVINTE CHEIE: