On 21 October 2025, the ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund paid tribute to the memory of Prof. Vasil Gerov, M.Eng., one of the establishers of the State Polytechnic in Sofia, and a significant donor to the Fund.
At the initiative of the Fund, a commemorative plaque was unveiled in the village of Skalsko, the birthplace of Prof. Gerov. In this way, the team of the ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund not only showed gratitude to its donor, but also marked the 121st anniversary of his birth.
The plaque was installed on the façade of the building that houses the Municipality and Svetlina–1922 Community Centre.
The opening ceremony was attended by mayors, deputy mayors, the chairs of the community centres in the town of Dryanovo and the village of Skalsko, experts from the Fund, and journalists. The attendees also visited Prof. Vasil Gerov’s grave.
Recollections of Prof. Vasil Gerov
Prof. Vasil Gerov (1904–1985) was one of the generous donors to NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’. In 1985, he donated his home—a three-storey house and yard in Sofia, at 16, Acacia Street—for activities of the SPO ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ Fund.
Assoc. Prof. Bogdan Draganov, M.Eng., a graduate of Prof. Gerov and his assistant from 1955, said: ‘Prof. Gerov would come very early in the morning (as he himself would say, “to the Technics”) and was the last to leave the building of IMEE (Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering) at about 10:00 p.m. Despite his excessive workload at the Institute, Prof. Gerov was much in demand as a distinguished professional in the design and construction of pumping stations for irrigation systems in Bulgaria. He was involved in the reconstruction of the pumping stations in the Karaboyaz locality and on the Danube River, and the management of the aircraft sprinkler system for the AN-2 aeroplane, which was installed in more than 100 aircraft of agricultural aviation, among many others.’
Writer Tsanko Zhivkov recounted in the Daritel [Donor] magazine of 1984 that Vasil Gerov applied for and won the competition for head of the Hydraulic Machines Department at the Higher Technical School in 1945. He was assigned the task of restoring the former State Printing House, half-destroyed by the bombings, where the first classrooms and laboratories of the Polytechnic were set up. He was later involved in the construction of a huge laboratory devoted to research into hydraulic machines and equipment. He wrote textbooks for students and pupils of technical schools in the disciplines of machine dynamics, hydraulic machines, turbomachines, and compressors and fans, as well as numerous scientific publications. He also gave lectures at the newly opened higher mechanical engineering institutes in Ruse and Varna. He was elected Dean and Vice Rector of Research and Development at the Polytechnic.
Along with his professional activities, ‘because his days were overloaded with work, after lectures and meetings, and after reading and writing until midnight, he used to turn to the flute in order to make up for his loneliness.’ While still working at the Diebold plant in France from 1935 to 1939, he enrolled in evening courses for amateur flutists. Returning to his homeland, Vasil Gerov continued his flute practices with Prof. Nikola Stefanov of the Sofia Conservatoire.
The Blüthner grand piano, included in the bequeathed property of the donor, is still kept in his home where the Central Office of the Fund is presently housed.
Prof. Valentin Obretenov (1950–2021), who frequently visited NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ over the years, was a student of Prof. Vasil Gerov and, stated in his report to a formal meeting at the Technical University, dedicated to the 110th anniversary of Vasil Gerov’s birth: ‘For his work at the IMEE, Prof. Vasil Gerov has been repeatedly endowed with the institute’s various awards, jubilee medals, and other prizes. For his overall activity, he was awarded the Order of Sts Cyril and Methodius 1st class. Towards the end of his life, Prof. Vasil Gerov donated all his property (including the house he designed himself in the Lozenets district of Sofia) to NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’.’
Prof. Vasil Gerov ended his earthly journey on 16 October 1985 and was buried in his native village of Skalsko. In his honour, the square in front of his house in Sofia was renamed ‘Prof. Vasil Gerov Square’.