Mr. Paul Mary Figueroa

Paul Mary Oliver Figueroa was born October 23, 1937, in Kingston, Jamaica. He passed away from COVID-19 on January 23, 2021, in Edmonton. His parents were Rupert Aston Figueroa and Iselina Figueroa (née Palomino).

Maria Josefa Figueroa (née Cisneros) was born October 5, 1939, in Manzanillo, Cuba. She passed away after a long illness with progressive supranuclear palsy -- a rare form of Parkinson’s Disease -- on September 20, 2022, in Edmonton. Her parents were Angel Cisneros and Maria Josefa Cisneros (née Maza).

Paul and Maria Josefa were married on July 2, 1968, in Union City, New Jersey, USA. They had courted for several years after meeting in Jamaica when Maria Josefa was studying English. The setting for their honeymoon was Niagara Falls, Canada, the country they would immigrate to in 1973 after a period in Jamaica where their son Angel Eduardo was born in 1969.

Paul earned his undergraduate degree from The University of West Indies and was employed as an airline officer. He achieved the rank of manager at both Mexicana Airlines and British West Indies Airways. In Canada, he earned graduate degrees from Western University in London, Ontario, and Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, where their daughter Sara Isabel was born in 1975.

The family moved to Edmonton where Paul was employed as a librarian at the University of Alberta from 1977 to 2002, working at both Cameron Library and Rutherford Library.

Maria Josefa studied piano and ballet and earned her certificate in musical pedagogy from the National Conservatory of Music of Havana in 1955. In the early 1980s, she worked as a piano teacher from their Edmonton home. She was also employed by the Edmonton School of Ballet as a piano accompanist during this time. She hosted the final recital for her piano students in 2017.

Paul was known for his love of nature, live theatre, and literature. Maria Josefa loved anything crafty and artistic and was usually the life of the party, loving to laugh and stay connected with family and friends. Both are dearly missed and fondly remembered.

Paul is survived by his siblings, Tony, Marin, and Carmen. Maria Josefa is survived by her goddaughter, Maria Julia. Both are survived by their two children, Angel Eduardo (Yoshie) and Sara Isabel (Rubim) and their three grandchildren, Isabel, Grace, and Leo.