Dr. Epsa Urumova

In memoriam

Dr. Epsa Urumova

retired full professor
(1922-2013)

In December 2013, we sent our dear professor Prof. Dr. Epsa Urumova on her long journey to eternity. Prof. Dr. Epsa Urumova was born in 1922 in Veles, where she completed her primary and secondary education. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the faculties in Belgrade and Sofia in 1948, with an interruption of her studies in the period 1944-1945 due to her participation in the medical service of the National Liberation Army. Together with Prof. Dr. Milun Knežević and Prof. Dr. Dragoslav Miletić, she is the founder of the Institute of Pathology, as part of the founding of the Faculty of Medicine in Skopje.
In 1949, she was elected as an assistant in the subject of pathological anatomy. She passed the specialist exam in Sarajevo in 1955, and four years later she defended her habilitation thesis “Interstitial plasmacytic pneumonia in an infant”. In 1960, Prof. Dr. Epsa Urumova was elected as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Skopje, and since 1974 she has been a full professor. She is one of the participants who actively contributed to the establishment of the Faculty of Dentistry and Pharmacy at UKIM. In the period from 1962 to 1965 she was elected as a teacher of pathological anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine in Niš, where she was also one of the founders of the Institute of Pathology.

He has advanced his knowledge in the field of pathology through professional training at the Institutes of Forensic Medicine and Pathology in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, as well as at the Institutes of Pathology in Düsseldorf and Cologne in Germany. He has published more than 100 scientific papers.

The period from 1972 to 1982, in which Prof. Dr. Epsa Urumova led the Institute of Pathology as director, was marked by permanent professional and scientific growth of pathology. During this period, the Institute of Pathology became a significant educational, diagnostic research base of the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Dentistry, as well as other institutions from the former territories of Yugoslavia. She is a mentor of a large number of
student topics and a carrier of a large number of scientific research projects in the field of health in Macedonia, especially on the effect of certain chemical substances and pollutants on the morphology of cells.

Prof. Dr. Urumova was a member of several associations in the country, the wider Yugoslav territories and the European Association of Pathologists. In the period 1971-1983, Prof. Dr. Urumova was the president of the Association of Pathologists of Macedonia, and since 1980 she has been the president of the Society of Pathologists of Yugoslavia. She is the recipient of several awards and recognitions from the University of Skopje and Niš, from the Macedonian Medical Association. She is the recipient of the Order of Labor with a Golden Wreath and the Order of Merit for the People with Silver Rays. She is also the recipient of the “Dr. Trifun
Panovski” charter and letters of appreciation on the occasion of jubilees from several institutions in the country and from the former Yugoslav territories.

Prof. Dr. Epsa Urumova quietly and imperceptibly responded to all the challenges in her work and in leading the Institute of Pathology. She managed to create European and world-renowned personnel in the field of pathology. Prof. Urumova was quiet and reserved, and at the same time a firm, determined and attentive person who knew how to unobtrusively give advice and in the same unobtrusive way to praise and rejoice in the successes of the younger ones. She knew how to skillfully oppose all injustices. After her retirement, she did not stop with her activities. She continued to convey to us her love for pathology but also her love for art, as evidenced by the many artistic paintings made by her hand. In each part of those paintings, parts of the pathology of the human being, with which we were surrounded every day, are included. She will be remembered for her hard work and dedication, for her modesty and endurance, as well as for the joy of life and enthusiasm that she possessed. We are proud to have had Prof. Dr. Epsa Urumova as our teacher and as a man who knew how to show us the path of truth and justice.

Prof. Dr. Gordana Petrushevska
Director of the Institute of Pathology
Faculty of Medicine, UKIM, Skopje
Prof. Dr. Neli Baseska
President of the Association of Pathologists of Macedonia