Aurora Gruescu

Aurora Gruescu
Born	11-05-1914
Nationality	Romanian
Occupation	Forestry Engineer
Parent(s)	Chiriac Dragomir, Maria Dragomir

Aurora Gruescu (15 May 1914, Oituz - 2005) was the world's first female forestry engineer, as well as the first Romanian person in the Guinness Book. She worked as a forestry engineer for 25 years. She had considerable contributions in her domain, such as the first national afforestation plan, set on 100,000 ha, as well as avo-chemical controls of pests in the infested forests around Bucharest.

Biography

She was born in the family of the teacher Chiriac Dragomir.

At the age of 10, she took part in a trip at school that aimed to improve students' knowledge of nature. During the trip there was a pit stop in the middle of a forest, where the woman who would become the first woman forest engineer was so impressed by the beauty of that place, that she promised that in her adult life, she would work in this field.

In 1933, after graduating from high school, she was guided by her parents to study medicine, and so she took and passed the entry exam. She also enrolled in the forestry faculty, but the results at the latter were communicated a month later, during which time she chose to pursue medicine, and thus she found out that medicine does not, in fact, appeal to her. She dropped out and managed to get into forestry. The following autumn, she took a specialisation exam with 129 other candidates for 13 places, which she passed. She was the only female student in that faculty, arousing both admiration and controversy, as those around her told her to give up.

Her work

In a time of misogynistic prejudice, such a career was considered typically masculine. She had the same disregard during the communist regime, when she was expropriated, being considered an enemy of the people.

However, she enjoyed the appreciation of many women, for whom she was an example, but also from international organizations. She was an honorary member of the “Progresul Silvic” Society, Prahova branch (1992), and an honorary member of the General Association of Romanian Engineers and of the Ministry of Water, Forests and Environmental Protection (1996). After retirement, in 1996, he obtained the Big Silver Medal at the Romania-Israel Binational Philatelic Exhibition, but also a nomination for the title of "Personality of the Year 1997" by The American Biographical Institute. In the spring of 2002, she was named Honorary Citizen of Busteni.

A book was dedicated to her, entitled "The Covenant with the Mystery of the Forests", written by journalist Rodica Simionescu, which paves the way for women who want to pursue a career in forestry.