Joan (John, in English) Oró i Florensa, University of Houston Professor Emeritus of Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences died in Barcelona on September 2, 2004. Oró was born in Lleida, Catalonia on October 26, 1923, the youngest of five children and the only male. Due to the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), his graduation from high school was delayed until 1941. He then studied at the University of Barcelona, where he obtained his degree in Chemistry in 1947. Already as a child, young Oró was interested in the chemistry of life. Since at the time he entered university there were no studies in biochemistry in Spain, he decided to pursue a degree in chemistry and to focus on organic chemistry