Popa, Grigore T., 1892-1948

Grigore T. Popa (sometimes Anglicized to Gregor T. Popa; 1 May 1892 – 18 July 1948) was a Romanian physician and public intellectual. Of lowly peasant origin, he managed to obtain a university education and become a professor at two of his country's leading universities. An anatomist by specialty, Popa worked on popularizing modern science, reforming the medical and higher education systems, and, in war hospitals, as a decorated and publicly acclaimed practitioner. His work in endocrinology and neuromorphology was valued abroad, while at home he helped train a generation of leading doctors. Ill-treated by successive fascist dictatorships, Popa adhered to moderate left-wing ideals and publicized them by means of his review, Însemnări Ieșene. He criticized Marxism as much as scientific racism, but condemned Romania's participation in the war against the Soviets, and, in 1944, joined a protest movement of high-profile academics. During his final years, his anticommunism and his Christian democratic stances brought him into conflict with the authorities. The Communist Romanian regime drove him out of his teaching position and harassed him until his death in middle age. Upon the restoration of democracy, his alma mater and the school where he taught for much of his career was named in his honor.