Francisco Luis Gutierrez

Francisco L. (Pancho) Gutierrez MD, passed away on Saturday, August 9th at Brooks Bartram Rehabilitation. He was 93. He was born in Havana, Cuba on December 2nd, 1920 to parents, Francisco Gutierrez, Attorney at Law and Maria Luisa Fernandez. He attended High School at LaSalle of Vedado and belonged to its alumni association throughout his whole life. He went on to study medicine at the University of Havana and graduated in 1947. That same year he would meet Ada Isabel Vinjoy, whom he married. They remained married until the last day of his life.

He migrated to the U.S. in 1963 for political reasons and lived in Miami for a few months until he found a job working in the emergency department of St. Joseph Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. In St. Louis, he and his wife were reunited with their two children who had preceded them to the U.S. two years before, and had been living in Montana.

In 1965 he found work at Winfield State Hospital in Kansas where he worked as a psychiatrist until 1969. From there they moved to New York, where he worked at Suffolk State Hospital in Long Island for almost 4 years. In 1972, he moved to Macclenny, Florida where he worked as a section chief psychiatrist at Northeast Florida State Hospital until his retirement in 1999 at the age of 79. He was a devout Catholic, who was active in various church activities and attended San Jose Catholic Church for the most part. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, and also belonged to the Cuban-American Club, where he was an office holding member in the administration of the club for a few years. He was also active in ACHA (Asociacion Cultural Hispano Americana), an association that brought cultural events and shows to Jacksonville.

His favorite activity was being the best father and husband that the world has ever known. He was an indefatigable humanitarian which was evident in the numerous free medical house calls he made in Havana where he would also give away free medicine if the patient could not afford it. In the last years of his practice, he would offer free counseling services to poor immigrants who would otherwise have nowhere else to turn. His interests ran the gamut from poetry to baseball, with many other subjects in between.

He is survived by his wife, Ada; his two children, Tita Gutierrez Varner and Paco Gutierrez; his grandson, Gabriel F. Varner, all of Jacksonville; his sister-in-law, Alicia Valdivia; and his nephew, Leonardo Valdivia of Miami; and his first cousin, Lourdes Travieso of Havana.

His family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or Catholic Charities, which were two of his favorite Charities. May the heavens be enriched by the presence of his soul.

Funeral services will be held at five o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at Hardage-Giddens, Hendricks Chapel. The family will receive friends the hour prior to the service. HARDAGE-GIDDENS, HENDRICKS CHAPEL, 4115 Hendricks Avenue.