THE TREE AND THE LIGHT
A year has passed since that November 18th, since that Sunday of mourning and we at INGV are still having a hard time resigning ourselves to the idea that there isn't any. more that figure that for pi? for a quarter of a century it has been for all of us a constant, reassuring point of reference, as massive as an age-old tree.
The speech is valid for those among us who are veterans of that little 80s epic that? been ING and who have worked with him for 20, 25, 30 years but it also applies to colleagues who only came into contact with him in 2001, when what? ? was established the INGV, coming from the CNR and the Vesuvian Observatory and that, although attending it for a much longer period of time? short, today they share our same feelings.
We find it hard to accept the idea that that concentrate of intelligence, tenacity, obstinacy and spirit of initiative that was Cesidio Lippa has been lost in thin air.
A concentrate of energy that, at least to us, appeared very clearly when a certain light came on in his eyes, perhaps while he was facing some opposition, perhaps while he was preparing for a new enterprise with that ability of his? to get to work immediately to transform the objective into a result.
Now ? the time of memories.
The small memories, the ones that make you smile (the idioms, his improbable ties, the checkered shirts, the shoes that are strictly out of fashion, the fruit stolen from the secretaries' desks).
Those who move (eyes cleaned by hombre vertical, the mustache of a good and strong man who has never failed to give you a hand).
And those who make us proud (the example of his work, what he has done for the institute, for research institutions, for the sector, for all of us and the obligation incumbent on us not to squander what he has left us , to continue his work, not to lose his memory and to revive public memory and awareness of his high commitment.
Rome, 18 November 2008
In May of this year ? A collection of testimonies in memory of him was prepared and published. On the occasion of this anniversary, in respect of her person, the Organization distributes it online.
Click here to download it (.pdf format 2,9 Mb).