Dr. Gregorio Delgado, Historian of Cuban Public Health, Passes Away

September 6, 2024

Dr. Gregorio Delgado García, historian of Cuban Public Health, passes away in Havana at the age of 91, the man of the five names, as he used to say: Gregorio, Pánfilo, Miguel, Geránimo, and Leopoldo. A person who was a living encyclopedia.

Endowed with a fabulous memory, he taught us, together with the late Elena López Serrano—another special person—to love the History of Public Health. Thanks to them, many copies of the History of Medicine and Cuban Public Health are still preserved.

Unfortunately, with Gregorio's departure to another dimension, the cohort of exceptional public health professionals who developed a fruitful body of work is becoming extinct.

On the night of September 4, 2024, Dr. Gregorio Delgado García passed away in the capital city of Havana at the age of 91.

Dr. Gregorio was born on September 30, 1933 in Melena del Sur, currently in Mayabeque province. His formation was marked by the influence of his grandfather, a pharmacist, his father, a historian, and his beloved wife, a nurse. He maintained impeccable professional ethics and elevated moral values that accompanied his work throughout his long career as a physician, professor, and historian.

Upon graduating as a physician in 1964, he worked in Oro de Guisa in the Sierra Maestra as part of the rural medical service.

Subsequently, he assumed, among other tasks, the directorship of Jiguaní Hospital, was subdirector of Health in Bayamo. He founded the "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes" Hospital in Bayamo, currently in Granma province.

Upon his return to Havana, he specialized in Microbiology, becoming a specialist of the first and second degree. Very quickly, and based on his extensive knowledge and numerous studies accumulated since his youth, he was assigned as Historian of Health. From that moment on, he combined his teaching and clinical work, which he carried out at "10 de octubre" Hospital, with his work as a historian.

In his prolific work, he founded the Chair of History of Public Health, now located at the National School of Public Health.

He taught undergraduate and graduate courses to health professionals from various disciplines.

His work as a researcher was carried out fundamentally at the well-known Casona de la Calzada del Cerro, where the Office of the Historian of Health is located, a task that occupied most of his time. He worked tirelessly on the edition of the Notebooks of the History of Medicine, a monumental scientific and historical work.

His monograph "Finlaísta Doctrine" won the Prize from the Academy of Sciences of Cuba in 1981. He was the author of 19 books, 13 pamphlets, and more than 250 scientific articles. He was awarded the Annual Prize for Health in 1997.

At the time of his death, he was the president of the Cuban Society of History of Medicine, a member of multiple national and international scientific societies, and an invited professor in more than 10 countries. He was the recipient of more than 50 national and international distinctions and decorations.

His life was marked by love for Cuba, for medicine, and for the history of Cuban public health.