Fifty years have passed since that famous Tuesday 30 April 1974, when in a packed auditorium of the State University Institute of Architecture, the degree in Architecture was conferred on Renato Laganà and Sergio Quattrone.
In extending the invitation to citizens and authorities, the government commissioner, Dr. Franco Pontorieri made explicit reference to what, in the early years of the twentieth century, the illustrious southern scholar Giustino Fortunato had stated that Calabria would take a step forward when a Calabrian museum hosted a work by Mattia Preti and when there was a graduate Calabrian in a Calabrian University. The first objective was achieved in 1972 when the Ministry of Education, then headed by the Hon. Riccardo Misasi purchased the work of the Calabrian Cavalier “The Return of the Prodigal Son” and donated it to the Civic Museum of Reggio Calabria.
The second objective coincided with April 1974, the final moment of the university career of two people from Reggio who had believed in the “fragile” university institution, first committing themselves to its survival and then forging ahead to complete the university process within five years with obtaining a degree.
Those were the days in which the Regional Council, examining the development of the university problem in Calabria, had expressed a favorable opinion on the establishment of the University of Reggio Calabria which was based on an in-depth study carried out by the academic bodies and which had obtained the consent of the Minister for Public Education, the Hon. Franco Maria Malfatti.
Five years had passed since the two graduates had enrolled in that faculty, firmly desired by the Hon. Giuseppe Reale and the group of Catholic entrepreneurs of Ucid encouraged by the venerable archbishop Giovanni Ferro, whose activities had been started in December 1967. On 1 May 1974, the Gazzetta del Sud reported the news on the front page with the title: “The first two degrees awarded in Calabria” adding in the text «…The dream of Giustino Fortunato, the famous southerner, of “seeing a Calabrian graduate in Calabria”, has finally come true: Renato Laganà, 26 years old, son of a retired official of the Banco di Roma, and Sergio Quattrone, 36 years old, belonging to a family of merchants from the Corso di Reggio Calabria, graduated in architecture shortly after midday yesterday, obtaining a brilliant mark of one hundred and ten.
Read the complete article in the paper edition of Gazzetta del Sud – Reggio
