If today the Polytechnic of Bari is known, renowned, frequented for the quality of its studies, research, synergy, support for the territory and because in its thirty-year history it has been able, with ability and stubbornness, to offer its land of origin a leap in quality and service. To imagine your future it is necessary to go back to your roots, your peculiarities and your history. And in the history of the Polytechnic of Bari it deserves a pre-eminent place to the prof. Umberto Ruggiero, who was its creator first, pioneer and Rector later.
THEThe Rector, Umberto Ruggiero, passed away this morning, May 16, in his hometown of Bari, to whom he had entrusted the creature he cared most about: the Polytechnic, in fact. He would have turned 97 on May 30th. His was a life, or rather many lives, as he loved to remember on the occasion of his 90th birthday, extraordinary, on a university, personal and professional level. From Knight of the Italian Republic (1969) awarded by the then President, Giuseppe Saragat to Commander of the Republic (2023), awarded by the President in office, Sergio Mattarella. The professor. Umberto Ruggiero was a true monument and pioneer of mechanical engineering in Puglia, and, above all, creator and promoter of the Polytechnic of Bari, inextricably linked.
Thus the Rector, Francesco Cupertino: “We participate in the family’s mourning with great affection and profound gratitude towards the extraordinary man, the enlightened teacher and the wise guide that Professor Ruggiero always represented for all of us, in his long and honored career. His teachings, his example and his works will remain a point of reference to remind us of our origins while always looking to the future, as he did. We will never forget it.”
An extraordinary story. Umberto Ruggiero, born in 1927, was born in a Bari distant in time, aligned, like all of Italy, with customs and beliefs with a unique color that, today, only history books and films from the Istituto Luce can tell.
Providence, as he will often gratefully recall, had reserved for him a long and extraordinary life path, with a couple of decisive ingredients which, combined with his skills, he will use on all occasions: great passion and intelligent initiative.
It was 1944, when he obtained his scientific high school diploma at the “Arcangelo Scacchi” Scientific High School in Bari. Italy was divided in two. Despite this, he was among the first to enroll in the two-year preparatory course of Engineering started in Bari in 1943-44 and subsequently in the Faculty of Engineering, started in 1947. He wanted to be a mechanical engineer and graduated in 1950 (score 110/110) in only course available: Civil Engineering, Transport section. He is one of the first Engineering graduates in Bari. His career is enriched by experiences inside and outside the university. In 1967 he was a full professor of Machinery and was the architect of the creation of the Mechanical Engineering degree course in Puglia, instrumental in promoting the industrial presence in the region and the training of an innumerable group of technical engineers thanks to the related degree course. Founder in 1975 of the Consorzio Studi Economia applied to Engineering (CSEI), later Universus, he worked hard in the 1980s to realize an ancient project from the beginning of the 20th century: a Polytechnic in Bari.
It is 1990. The founding law is n.245 of 7 August. The creation of the Polytechnic of Bari, third in Italy, was another fundamental great achievement of his.
He will become Rector in 1994, after Attilio Alto, another protagonist in the history of the Polytechnic of Bari. The Polytechnic, to which Umberto Ruggiero will remain linked forever, is, and will always be, the flagship of his work as a teacher and administrator. At the same time, over the years he accumulates a long list of other roles which are accompanied by constant scientific, educational and social commitment within the Faculty of Engineering and beyond. He is the author of 90 scientific memoirs, 3 books and two patents.
Professor emeritus of Poliba since 2004 with the following motivation: “to Prof. Ruggiero, already an enlightened teacher and Magnificent Rector, who contributed to the creation of the third Polytechnic in Italy, the first in the Centre-South”. Dean of engineers of Puglia, he was also Councilor and President of the Regional Order of Engineers. Honorary president of the Italian Thermotechnics Association, author of 90 scientific memoirs, 3 books and two patents.
In the last thirty years of his life he continued to be a protagonist with a clear critical conscience on all the most important issues of local and national reality, from the return to master’s degrees to the problems of Ilva, bringing his testimony in local conferences and magazines and national.
The funerals. His body will be on display tomorrow, May 17, from 10.30 am, in the “Sedes Sapientiae” Chapel, on the university campus. The funeral rite will be celebrated at 4.00 pm, in the Aula Magna “Attilio Alto”.
