Prominent Public Health Specialist Dr. Benito Pérez Maza Passes Away

April 7, 2024

With deep sorrow, the collective of the National School of Public Health (ENSAP) reports the death at age 94 of Dr. Benito Alberto Pérez Maza, physician, guerrilla fighter, and mentor of new generations of Cuban doctors.

Pérez Maza represents, for Cuban medical education, more than a professor—a paradigm of the inspiring Teacher and pillar of revolutionary pedagogy. His life and professional trajectory demonstrate this clearly.

He was born on November 21, 1930 in the town of La Esperanza, former province of Las Villas. He completed his studies and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of La Habana in 1954. Immediately afterward, he returned to the city of Santa Clara and established himself there with his family, becoming recognized as an Honorary Physician at the "San Juan de Dios" Hospital in Santa Clara.

He immediately joined the revolutionary struggle through the Revolutionary Directorate, using his medical practice as a link within the organizational chain that was forming in the region. There he established relationships with Ramón Pando Ferrer (1933-1958), student leader at the University of Las Villas and Provincial Coordinator of the Revolutionary Directorate in that province.

He also served as:

Achieved the rank of Captain in the Rebel Army and was physician at the "El Mamey" Hospital in Escambray (1958).
Vice-Rector of Teaching and Research at the University of Oriente (1965-1967).
Rector of the University of Oriente (1967-1969).
Rector of the Central University of Las Villas (1969-1972).
Vice-Minister of Higher Education (1972-76).
First Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Higher Education (1976-1988).
Director of the Teaching Polyclinic "26 de Julio" in Playa Municipality, La Habana (1988-1992).
Head of the Teaching Department of Health Administration of the Faculty of Public Health of the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of La Habana (1992-2000).
Dean (provisional) of the Faculty of Public Health of the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of La Habana (1999).
Full Professor at the National School of Public Health (2000 to present).
Consultant Professor (2001).
He was a human being with singular gifts, beloved and admired by all who knew him, who were able to receive his solidarity, humanism, his friendship, his companionship, his support in the most difficult moments.

Numerous were the merits and recognitions that Professor Pérez Maza received:

First-Degree Specialist in Health Organization and Administration since 1974.
Doctor in Pedagogical Sciences in 1983.
Full Professor since 1984.
Professor Emeritus of the Central University of Las Villas in 1992.
Frank País Order, First Grade, from the State Council of the Republic of Cuba in 2010.
Medal for the 45th Anniversary of the Medical University of Santiago de Cuba.
Commemorative Medal for the 60th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, awarded in September 2016.
Special Teaching Category of Professor Emeritus by the University of Oriente, on October 24, 2019.
The introduction of methodological work and class observation as a fundamental means of improving the faculty and as a regulating element of the quality of the teaching-learning process constituted the first manifestations of the development of pedagogical thinking that transcended and today constitutes a legacy of work in Cuban universities.