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In Memoriam: Eugenio Recio

The entire Esade community is deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Eugenio Recio Figueiras, Honorary Professor at Esade. Dr. Recio was a part of Esade for 49 years, starting in the 1973-1974 academic year.

Eugenio Recio

His personal and professional profile was unimpeachable. Day after day, he dedicated himself fully to his academic work at Esade, to the last drop of his energy, acting as one of the institution’s discreet cornerstones.

He imparted his economic knowledge – and the example of his personal integrity – to generation after generation of students. His vast economic and social knowledge always incorporated the perspective of the social market economy, which he acquired during his doctoral training in Germany and from Christian humanism.

Prof. Eugenio Recio was a teacher of economists and a touchstone for members of the Department of Economics and the entire Esade faculty.

His countless published works, particularly his textbook Análisis del entorno económico de la empresa, were released in multiple editions, leaving an indelible mark on teachers in the discipline and on the thousands of students who learned about economic relations from his writings and from his masterful presentations. He also published extensively on labour relations, basing on his interest on the interaction of “humans with resources” within organisations and companies.

 

A few words of farewell

“For me, Prof. Recio was a clear example of academic rigour in the field of economics. He always tried to distinguish between science and politics. And he succeeded. He raised ethical dilemmas in a gentle way, only for those who were attentive to and interested in his comments. Hence another characteristic: his enormous respect for the “Other” – provided that the Other also evinced a rigorous and consistent thought process. In fact, consistency was his forte: his Christian faith inspired him to live a simple, austere life (he drove, if I recall correctly, a green SEAT 650, which he always parked on Carrer dels Cavallers, and which lasted him many, many years). At the same time, he was committed to an economics that, when it (rarely) set scientific rigour aside in favour of political ideas, it did so for the sake of a social market economy (the German model that he admired so much). In other words, a people-centred economy that works for everyone.

He was a tireless worker who every day selected news items to prompt a classroom discussion on the economic situation and carried them around in a briefcase that was disproportionately large for him. In class, his head worked faster than his tongue, which meant that he sometimes had to reformulate his statements to allow students to follow him. (The best thing I ever heard in one of his classes was not strictly about economics, but about the history of socioeconomic thought, with his colleague and friend Antonio Marzal, who, like him, had been a Jesuit. The only one who competed with them in quality of thought and teaching, in my view, was Carles Comas.)

My colleague and friend Eugenio was one of the best professional role models I have had either inside or outside of Esade. He was dedicated to his profession, and one of the most honest people I have ever known. He loved his profession and his vocation. Out of shyness, he could come across as not very affectionate – but in fact, he was. He is among those who have helped me the most, because of his frankness – always telling me what he thought, even things a general manager does not like to hear. He was always ready to lend a hand. I remember many sayings and stories of his that I will not share here, because he was, above all, a discreet person who was averse to posturing. Much has already been said about his sensitivity. So I will show some respect for his wishes and his way of being.

The day after he died, his daughter Araceli told me to tell “the people of Esade” that her father had been very happy working there. How little one hears this sort of expression nowadays! Such words can only come from someone who managed to develop his vocation as a teacher, as a scholar... and as an institutional builder: the sort of teacher who is not only good at what he does, but who is capable of building an institution, an academic community, a human project to which he and his colleagues are committed.

If he was happy working at Esade, the rest of us were happy to be his colleagues, his friends and his co-workers. May he rest in glory.”

 

Prof. Carlos Losada Marrodán

Student of Prof. Recio (1976-1979)

Faculty colleague (1988-1992 y 2000-2022)

Department of Strategy and General Management
Esade

 

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