Jaime Jaramillo Arango


Jaime Jaramillo Arango was a Colombian professor of medicine and surgery, author, diplomat, and politician.He was dean of medicine of the National University of Colombia and director of the same institution, pioneer of modern medicine, Minister Plenipotentiary in the Colombian foreign policy during the mid 20th century, Minister of education, and founder of the Anglo Colombian School.
Professor Jaramillo Arango wrote several books of medicine and botany. The most important was “The British Contribution to Medicine” that studied the investigations and discoveries of several Nobel laureates: penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming; malaria, by Ronald Ross; paludrine, by F. H. Curd, D. G. Davey, and F. L. Rose; vitamins, by Gowland Hopkins; and stilboestrol, by Robert Robinson and Charles Dodds. The foreword of Jaramillo’s book was written by Arthur MacNalty, British Chief Medical Officer of the British government.
Jaramillo Arango became the Permanent Delegate of Colombia to the League of Nations, and Permanent Delegate of Colombia to the First Assembly of the UNESCO in London, in November 1945, where he proposed the creation the United Nations University.

Family

Jaime Jaramillo Arango was born on January 17 of 1897, in Manizales, Colombia. He was the son of Francisco Jaramillo Jaramillo and Dolores Arango Isaza. The family descended from Alonso Jaramillo de Andrade, from Extremadura, Spain.

Education

Jaramillo Arango studied first in the St. Thomas Aquinas School in Manizales, and then in the St. Bartholomew Major College in Bogotá. He studied medicine in the National University of Colombia, and surgery in Paris, London, and Rochester, United States.

Career

Pioneer of modern medicine

He returned to Colombia, and became the Director of surgery of the Hospital San Juan de Dios from 1920 to 1923, and from 1927 to 1931. He was the president and member of the board of directors of the institution in several occasions.
Due to his extensive studies and professional experience, he became a pioneer of the Colombian modern medicine, and the most eminent surgeon of his time. He was the primary doctor of three presidents of Colombia and many personalities.

Professor, Rector and Minister

In the 1930s, he began his career in education: from 1933 to 1934, he was the dean of medicine of the National University of Colombia; and, in 1934, president Enrique Olaya Herrera appointed him as Minister of National Education. Rector of the National University of Colombia 1949–1950.

Diplomatic figure

In 1938, the liberal president Alfonso López Pumarejo appointed Jaime Jaramillo Arango as Minister Plenipotenciary of Colombia to Germany. That year, he was assigned also as Minister Plenipotenciary during World War Two to the Governments in exile: Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, and Poland, based in London.

Witness of the horrors of Kristallnacht

On August 2nd 1938, Jaramillo Arango arrived in Berlin. The chosen date to present credentials as ambassador to Adolf Hitler was November 15th. But, on November 9th, the Nazi paramilitary squadrons began brutally attacking the Jewish population and their stores, known as Kristallnacht – the initiation of the persecution of Jews by the Third Reich. The following day, November 10th, Ambassador Jaramillo, and his two assistants were arrested because they had been taking pictures of the impressive damage in Kurfürstendamm, from the diplomatic automobile. They were taken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where they were released two hours later. Due to these events, Hitler cancelled the appointment with the Colombian delegation.

Ambassador to the United Kingdom

In 1939, he headed the Colombian delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the actual United Nations. Amid the expansion of the Third Reich across Europe, president Eduardo Santos named him as Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, from September 1940 to 1943. Jaime Jaramillo Arango suffered, too, the Blitz of the German bombing. During World War II, he was appointed also as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Governments in Exile, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Norway, based in the British capital. He became the first Colombian ambassador to the United Kingdom, from 1943 to December 19, 1945.

University of the United Nations

In November 1945, Jaramillo Arango was the Colombian delegate to the First Assembly of UNESCO in London, and was elected as vice president. He proposed the creation of the University of the United Nations.
In his speech, Ambassador Jaramillo Arango remembered the physical and spiritual famine in Europe, the teachers killed, and the universities destroyed during the war. He called to other members for a rapid reconstruction and rehabilitation of Europe through a system of cooperation. During the UNESCO First Assembly, his proposition was received with applause, but never defined.

National University of Colombia

After his diplomatic life, Jaramillo Arango returned to his country. From 1949 to 1950, he became the Rector of the National University of Colombia

Foundation of the Anglo Colombian School

In February 1956, due to his deep admiration for the British scientists and educators that had been his teachers and colleagues, professor Jaramillo Arango founded the Anglo Colombian School of Bogotá, inspired by the British educational system. To this day, it is one of the most prestigious schools of Colombia.

Personal life

In 1931, Jaime Jaramillo Arango was engaged to Carolina Cárdenas Núñez, ceramist and photographer. They married in 1932. Carolina, ill of meningitis, died in 1936.
In 1948, he married María José Nemry von Thenen, a Belgian citizen. He died on July 30th 1962.

Selected works

Professor Jaramillo Arango wrote several books and articles about science, medicine and botany, in Spanish and English:
  • 1948 - A propósito de algunas piezas inéditas de orfebrería Chibcha Bogotá: Imprenta del Banco de la República.
  • 1949 - Estudio crítico acerca de los hechos básicos de la historia de la quina
  • 1950 - The Conquest of Malaria London: William Heinemann Medical Books Ltd.
  • 1952 - The Journals of Hipólito Ruiz, a Spanish botanist in Peru and Chile, 1777-1788. Transcribed to Spanish from the original manuscripts by Jaime Jaramillo Arango, and translated to English by Richard Evans Schultes and María José von Thenen Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952 / 1998.
  • 1953 - The British Contribution to Medicine. Foreword by Sir Arthur MacNalty London: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd.
  • 1953 - Don José Celestino Mutis y las expediciones botánicas españolas del siglo XVIII al Nuevo Mundo Separata de la Revista Bolívar, No. 9, 1952 / Separata de la Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias, Vol. VIII, Nos. 33 y 34, mayo de 1953.
  • 1959 - Historia de los antibióticos. Bogotá: Editorial Pax.
  • 1962 - Manual del árbol. Bogotá: Editorial Voluntad Ltda.