The venerable Professor Beniamin Cotigaru passed away on October 2, 2014. It is a tremendous loss for all those who knew him, but also for the academic world. His funeral will take place in Bucharest on Sunday, October 5, 2014.

Professor Beniamin Cotigaru is an Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee (CRD). It is well known that as Romanian Distribution Committee’s status clearly points out the importance of seeking to promote sustainable development (http://www.distribution-magazine.eu/about/), in 2000, CRD organized, together with the “International Foundation Health – Environment – Sustainable development ” and in partnership with “ION RATIU” Romanian Parliamentarians Club, the Symposium “The Economy of Ideas and Sustainable development”, first reported by the well-known Magazine “Tribuna Economica”, no. 18/3 May 2000. The discussions that took place at the Parliament House, on the occasion of the works of the Symposium on May 16, 2000, were based on a study (“Sustainable development : principles and action”, Beniamin Cotigaru, Theodor Purcarea, coordinators, Millenium Publishing House, May 2000), interdisciplinary research representing a turning point in developing a national strategy for sustainable development.

On April 3, 2013, on the special occasion of the celebration of the centennial of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE Bucharest), the Romanian Ministry of National Education awarded the Diploma of Honor to venerable Professor Beniamin Cotigaru for his significant contribution to the development of education and scientific research in the field of Commodity Science, in honor of his outstanding performance.

It is also worth mentioning that on May 24, 2006, Professor Beniamin Cotigaru, received the “RESPAD Trophy” Diploma awarded by CRD on the occasion of the Symposium “Institutional-spiritual reconstruction of enterprises, requirement for sustainable development in the knowledge society”, organized by the Romanian Distribution Committee in collaboration with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE Bucharest) and UGIR 1903 (on the basis of the volume which appeared in April 2006 at ASE Publishing House and in which, at page 488, reference is made to „RESPAD Trophy” offered by CRD, among other things emphasizing the correlation between real success and the vision of the training team.

Two years later, Professor Beniamin Cotigaru was the special guest of the Romanian-American University, the School of Management-Marketing, on the occasion of the International Conference “Business innovation, Competitiveness and Ethics”, 10-11 October, 2008.

May his memory be for a blessing.