Edwin Mendez Yorobe, M.D.

Dr. Edwin Mendez Yorobe was born November 23, 1945 in Iriga City and raised in Nabua, Camarines Sur in the Philippines. He attended Far Eastern University (FEU) for his Pre-Medicine courses where he was a scholar from the first year of college to graduation. He became the Editor of the Advocate Magazine, FEU’s Official Organ. He was active in campus politics and in other extracurricular activities. For his Medical Degree, he continued at the same university where he also had the fortune of meeting his beautiful wife Dr. Barbara Yorobe. Before leaving the Philippines, he taught at FEU for two years as an assistant professor. In Philadelphia, he took his internship at Mercy Hospital and his residency at the Wayne State University and then at Veterans Hospital in Michigan where his specialty was Internal Medicine. The family then moved to San Diego where Dr. Edwin Yorobe went into private practice and both Drs, Edwin & Barbara Yorobe, started the Tierrasanta Medical Center which has served the Tierrasanta residents as well as patients in the Filipino-American and other ethnic communities from 1991 to now.

Dr. Yorobe was a humanitarian who made time to serve the community and people in need in the Philippines and chaired an annual medical mission to the Philippines for many years. He collected and donated medical equipment and medicine for developing hospitals in remote provinces. When he arrived to San Diego, Dr. Edwin was an active volunteer for Operation Samahan as a Physician. He was involved in the acquisition and renovation of the Historic Lincoln Hotel for low-income members of the community. The Lincoln Hotel is also the site of Philippine Library & Museum Downtown which he also helped establish.

Dr. Yorobe is the Founding President of the Filipino Medical Association established in December 18, 1979. Dr. Yorobe served for two terms as the Founding President. Seeing the need for expanded medical care for the Filipinos in the city and county of San Diego, Dr. Yorobe founded an Operation Samahan Branch in Mira Mesa alongside the late Vic Occiano. Dr. Yorobe also became involved with the different organizations in San Diego including the Humanitarian, Youth and Business Foundations that his wife Barbara had established.

Dr. Yorobe received numerous Awards of Distinction in Medical Service from the then Hillside Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Sharp Community Hospital and other Nursing facilities as Medical Director as well as Excellence in Community & Public Services from different sectors and groups. He was recently awarded the prestigious Sharp Memorial Hospital Doctor’s Day Pin honoring him for his long years of medical practice and adherence to good moral and ethics.

Dr. Yorobe never retired and was active to the last day of his life. He has helped thousands of patients in his career. He passed peacefully in his sleep early Wednesday morning on May 30, 2018. He is survived by his wife Barbara, his children Marie, Camille and Evgeny and granddaughters Kayla, Brighton and Kourtney.