Romeu Beltrão (1913–1977), was a Brazilian

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. He was born and died in Santa Maria,

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

.Biografia de Romeu Beltrão.
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Biography

In 1920, at the age of seven, Beltrão entered the gymnasium (

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

) at the College of Santa Maria. At fifteen, went to study at the Medical School of

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

. After graduating in medicine in December 1934, he returned home to Santa Maria. But by February 1935, he had moved to São Pedro do Sul, to practice medicine. While there he courted and married his wife, Nilza Niederauer Alvares, as well as writing opinion pieces for the local newspaper. But he missed the intellectual and cultural life of Santa Maria, so in 1937 he again returned home, where he devoted himself to medicine and teaching. In 1938 he became a Professor of

Pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

Botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Beltrão was strongly influenced by

Llewellyn Ivor Price Llewellyn Ivor Price (October 9, 1905 – June 9, 1980) was one of the first Brazilian paleontologists. His work contributed not only to the development of Brazilian but also to global paleontology. He collected '' Staurikosaurus'', the first ...

, and he undertook an intense survey of the paleontological finds from in and around Santa Maria. By 1951, he himself was actively engaged in paleontological excavations in the region. And in 1958, he published the book ''Cronologia Histórica de Santa Maria e do extinto município de São Martinho'' which included the history of

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

in the Paleorrota area from 1787 to 1930. He abandoned his planned second volume which would have brought the history up to about 1960, and instead published his translation of Friedrich von Huene's paleontological work about Santa Maria, as well as a biography of Colonel João Niederauer Sobrinho (1827–1868) a hero of the Paraguayan War. He continued to write for the local newspaper and compiled a geographical dictionary of the Santa Maria municipality, which was never published.

Honors

A residential street in

Canoas Canoas (), which earned city status in 1939, is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. With more than 340,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Porto Alegre conurbation and has the second highest GDP in the state. It is also th ...

was named "Rua Romeu Beltrão" in his honor."Mapa de Canoas: Romeu Beltrão"
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Biography

Honors

Notes

Further reading