Person: Gros, Ángel
Ángel Palacio Gros was a Spanish mathematician who fought for the Republicans and spent 8 years in prison before being able to emigrate to Venezuela. There he did excellent work as a mathematics professor and wrote four mathematics books which ran to several editions.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- This description certainly applies to Ángel Palacio Gros, his parents and all his siblings.
- Unfortunately we have not been able to find as much information about Ángel Palacio Gros' student years as we would have liked so this part of our biography is rather sketchy.
- We have mentioned what happened to Palacio Gros's teachers in the Spanish Civil War since this war would totally change the course of his career.
- This looks unlikely since it would mean that Palacio Gros entered Madrid University close to his 13th birthday.
- What we do know is that Palacio Gros was on the staff of the Exact Sciences section of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Madrid when the Civil War broke out in July 1936.
- Palacio Gros was in the 46th Division, part of the 5th Army Corps of the Maneuver Army in December 1937.
- On 26 January 1938 Palacio Gros was "the divisional assistant captain" of the 46th Division.
- Palacio Gros was with the 46th Division in Teruel.
- They made their way through with hand bombs, but more than a thousand were taken prisoner, among them Palacio Gros, chief of staff of the 46th Division.
- Palacio Gros was sentenced to death and was imprisoned in the Central Prison of Burgos.
- The Spanish Civil War ended in April 1939 with victory for Franco but this did not help those in prison for the crime of "military rebellion." Death sentences continued to be carried out but in Palacio Gros's case he was not executed.
- Palacio Gros seems to have become the leader of the group and set about negotiating their departure to Venezuela.
- On 1 July 1947 Palacio Gros wrote to the representative of the Venezuelan government thanking him for his visit and his efforts to allow them to emigrate to Venezuela.
- Arriving in Venezuela, Palacio Gros set up home in the capital Caracas.
- In addition to these teaching positions, Palacio Gros began teaching at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Central University of Venezuela in 1948.
- Palacio Gros taught Enrique Planchart both at the Colegio América and at the Central University of Venezuela.
- In 1951 Palacio Gros along with 17 engineering professors and 123 professors from other faculties, signed the manifesto against the revocation of the Organic Statute of National Universities.
- Palacio Gros taught at the Colegio América for a while then was appointed to the University of Zulia in 1952.
- The rector of the Central University of Venezuela, Pedro González Rincones, offered a "pardon" to all the expelled professors and for this reason, in 1953, Palacio Gros returned to the Central University of Venezuela.
- But Palacio Gros was also a good teacher, knowledgeable about the subjects he taught.
- The students were divided into two classes of around 200 each and both were taught by Palacio Gros.
- He seems to have marked with the belief that only God would score 20, only Palacio Gros himself would score 19, so the best a student could expect was 18 and very few achieved that.
- Palacio Gros always handed the examinations back to his students, starting with the lowest grades.
- Palacio Gros wrote four books, based on the lecture curses he gave at the Central University of Venezuela.
- In 1954 Palacio Gros became a member of the Asociación Venezolana para el Avance de la Ciencia.
- Palacio Gros died in Madrid on 19 August 1990.
Born 3 October 1913, Zaragoza, Spain. Died 19 August 1990, Madrid, Spain.
View full biography at [MacTutor](https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Palacio_Gros/
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
