VETERINARSKI ARHIV 68 (3), 79-80, 1998

ISSN 0372-5480
Printed in Croatia

Prof. Dr. Tomo Martincic
(1929-1997)

It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Dr Tomo Martincic at 3 December 1997, Dean (on several occasions) and Full Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, of which he was Vice-chancellor. For many years he was also the Principal of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine. But above all we mourn the loss of a kind and compassionate human being. Tomo Martincic was born at 14 December 1929 in Reka, near Koprivnica, Croatia, where he had been visiting primary and grammar-school. He acquired the habitus of university professor and scientist within a large community of veterinarians, doctors and biochemists. He further enhanced his expertise by attending many study courses and through periods spent at scientific institutions in Switzerland, Germany and Great Britain, which at that time were leading scientific centres in the world.

In his initial works he shed some light on what was until then the somewhat imperfect knowledge of the role, significance and metabolism of amino acids in body fluids and tissues of animals.

In 1961, he defended his Doctoral dissertation, that dealt with the movement of free amino acids in eye diseases, in the horse. Two further works from the same period discuss the amino acid composition of parasites. This group of papers followed the scientific path established for our Institute, and provoked considerable interest in the world of science. Bearing witness to that fact, in addition to works published in eminent international journals and presented at congresses, are the dozens of requests for permission to publish them received from around the world that we have recently discovered in the archives of Professor Martincic. This in turn enabled other courses of study to transcend traditional boundaries and to expand their subject of interest through the breakthrough made into cellular and subcellular organ and tissue structure in physiological and pathological conditions.

The next few papers were products of work on a scientific subject, financed by the American government, as part of what was then a major world topic related to the feeding of domestic animals. Outstanding in this group of works are his papers on arginase, carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase and ornithine transcarbamoylase activity. It can be objectively stated that the above papers constituted a significant contribution to the scope of knowledge related to the mechanism of detoxification of ammonia in ruminants, to the metabolism of urea, with emphasis on the function and role of the rumen mucosa within that particular physiological complex.

All of these works notwithstanding, there is no doubt that the dominant position in the whole opus of Professor Martincic's works belongs to the metabolism of lipids in mammals and birds. On his return from a year-long scientific advancement course of studies at the Institute for Physiological Chemistry at the Faculty of Medicine in Basle, in 1963 he was the first person in Croatia to introduce quantitative determination of fatty acids through gas chromatography, a method of analysis which at that time was little short of revolutionary. This opened up an array of new possibilities in the field of biomedical research, resulting in numerous Master's and Doctoral theses being produced at our Institute, in expanded co-operation with other scientific institutions throughout the world, and in the publication of our achievements in the most prominent of the world journals and in their citation at international congresses. From that particular period, attention has to be drawn to his published works on the movement of fatty acid in serum and liver and fat deposits in ruminants, both in physiological and pathological circumstances. The combination of research into the issue of lipids, the adopted methodology, laboratory experience, and, above all, in-depth knowledge in this field, has made the application of these analytical methods in the quality control system of foodstuffs of animal origin possible, as his works written between 1973 and 1980 tell us. During that same period, at the beginning of the 1970s, Professor Martincic conducted a number of experiments on the hydrogen donator system in lipogenesis in the liver of birds, that is to say, on cyclic AMP. At that point in time this substance was the very centre of interest of applied biochemistry in the world.

More recently, in the 1980s and 1990s Professor Martincic was engaged in the problem area of the metabolism of lipids and carbohydrates in relation to energy deficiency and production diseases in dairy cows and fattening heifers.

As a teacher, Professor Martincic was quite exemplary. Generations of students have benefited from his carefully conceived and prepared lectures on the pathophysiology of blood, and in other areas within his professional sphere. Although he never failed to enhance his lectures with the latest scientific advances he always treated them with caution, his driving principle being "let us check it once again", or audiatur et altera pars. His overriding aim was to instil into his students a sense of academic deliberation on professional and academic problems which, as the spirit of a university approach to matters dictates, are always permeated and complemented by fundamental philosophical questions of life.

His approach to academic and pedagogic work issued from the very depths of his intense spirit, which revealed a true intellectual, his erudition and aestheticism. His interest in, knowledge of and affinity for, literature, ranging from world classics to present-day publications, was reflected in every conversation one had with him. The walls of his home were adorned with works of art, many of them depicting motifs of his native Podravina. With equal dedication Professor Martincic played an extremely active part in a number of professional bodies, both at the Faculty and at the University of Zagreb, where he was President of the Board, as well as of numerous Commissions within the Faculty Council. But it is the exceptionally successful mandates that he served as Dean that will remain an indelible record in the history of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He used his mandates to materialise his sensibility both for the spirit of the times and the needs of modern science and academicism.

With the same level of success, Professor Martincic performed his duties as Vice-chancellor for International Co-operation at the University of Zagreb.

For his work he earned and won the highest accolades, awards and recognition from the State.

Of all his enviable virtues, however, that which deserves special mention was his attitude to and relationships with his colleagues and associates, particularly the younger ones among them. Always straightforward and lucid, never a stickler for protocol or etiquette, Professor Martincic was easily accessible and always willing to assist all who needed to consult him - whether it be an individual, an institution or an entire community. We shall always remember the period during which, as President of the Croatian Veterinary Society, he fought uncompromisingly for the development of the profession and for an approach towards it that would conform with standards existing in the developed countries of the world, although his efforts were often confronted by the crude rudiments of opposing values.

And if we were able to talk with him now, we would certainly tell him that he was leaving us far too soon, with his period of retirement only just beginning, when both his professional help and his friendship was so sorely needed and missed. He had a strong feeling for the good and the honest; he knew when to draw the line and, once the line was drawn, how to adhere to it rigidly. As a true believer, at peace with God and people, he has now left us and departed peacefully to the heavenly kingdom. Being aware of that, we feel obliged to continue to uphold the values he himself followed throughout his life and work, adopting them as our own life principles.

It remains only for us to thank him for all that he was for and everything he gave us. May the Croatian land be gentle with him and may he rest peacefully beneath the soil of the Podravina that he so dearly loved.

Branimir Kampl