Dr. Antonio V. Lorenzo

Antonio Vicente Lorenzo Cabral, “Tony”, passed away peacefully at home Thursday, December 29, 2022 following a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 94 years old. Tony was born in Vigo, Spain on July 23, 1928, the youngest of three sons of the late Emilio Lorenzo Comesaña and the late Maria Dolores Cabral Dieguez de Lorenzo. He was predeceased by both of his older brothers, Emilio Gustavo Lorenzo Cabral and Jose Lorenzo Cabral.

In 1937, Tony’s family fled Franco’s Falangists in Galicia during the Spanish civil war. Tony, his mother and brothers Emilio and Jose, were quarantined in Ellis Island on their arrival to the United States and threatened with expulsion because of the United States’ restrictive immigration policies towards people with disabilities. Tony’s brother Jose had Down syndrome. Catholic Charities and Tony’s gainfully employed uncles who had arrived a year earlier obtained their entry into the United States by promising that Jose would not become a ward of the state. While Tony’s immediate and extended family settled in the Bronx and in Puerto Rico, Tony grew up in the Bronx and eleven years later, in 1948, enlisted with the Airforce during the Korean War. In 1950, Tony obtained United States citizenship through the naturalization process. Tony was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1952 after serving four years and attaining the rank of Technical Sergeant. Tony enrolled in the University of Chicago on a GI Bill where he met fellow University of Chicago student, May Siu Yin Kwan, married in 1958 and had two children while they were both students. He graduated with Bachelor and Master degrees in Chemistry, and a PhD in Neuropharmacology. He became an academic researcher at the Children’s Hospital in Boston for over 25 years, including as the Director of the Neurological Research Laboratory at the Department of Neurology and later as the Head of the Animal Research Committee at the Department of Neurosurgery. Tony was also an Associate Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School during this time. Among his 42 co-authored publications receiving 1532 citations was research on lead poisoning in children, fetal alcohol syndrome, hydrocephalus, the absorption of cerebral spinal fluid, the blood brain barrier, and the distribution of drugs in the central nervous system. He developed many researchers in his lab and in other countries. On his retirement from the Children’s Hospital, when Tony was not travelling or ballroom dancing with May, sharing meals with family and friends around the world, gardening, reading, or doting on his grandchildren, Tony volunteered in Boston’s Chinatown Main Street, a local nonprofit organization committed to making Boston’s Chinatown a thriving cultural and commercial center. He reclaimed his Spanish citizenship in 2011 under Spain’s Law of Historical Memory.

Tony and May were married for 62 years before May passed away in June 2020. Tony appreciated the friendship and support of his neighbors at Tremont on the Common, and the regular visits from May’s friends. Tony is survived by two children: Mark Lorenzo of East Calais, VT, and Susana Lorenzo-Giguere and her husband Paul of Washington, DC; his brother- and sister-in-law William Kwan and his wife Irene of Hong Kong. He also leaves three grandchildren, Isabella, Marco, and Matteo of Washington, DC; three nieces, Veronika Kwan Vandenberg and her husband Rob of Los Angeles, CA, Martina Kwan of Los Angeles, CA, and Adah Kwan and her husband Jonathan, of Hong Kong; three nephews, Michael Kwan and his wife Vanessa of Hong Kong, Peter Kwan and his wife Mandy, of Hong Kong, and Nicholas Kwan of Vancouver; and all of their children. He also leaves nephews and their families on the Lorenzo side of the family, John Lorenzo and his wife Mary Ellen of New Jersey, David Lorenzo’s wife Rita of New York, and Daniel Lorenzo and his wife Celeste of Florida; and all of their children.