# Passes Away Professor Emeritus Juan Manuel Diego Cobelo

**Date:** 11/08/2019

On the night of Thursday, November 7, 2019, Professor Emeritus Juan Manuel Diego Cobelo passed away, born in Cienfuegos on April 30, 1929.

Dr. Cobelo studied the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chicago, USA, at Saint Anne's Hospital, affiliated with Chicago University in the 1950s of the last century.

In 1959 he assumed the position of Director of the Maternity Hospital of Cienfuegos, shortly after he was appointed Regional Subdirector of Medical Assistance and Teaching, and later Regional Director of Public Health in Cienfuegos.

Awarded a scholarship by the World Health Organization (WHO) to pursue a Master's degree in Public Health in Mexico, and upon his return he served as provincial subdirector of Medical Assistance and Teaching in the province of Las Villas, and subsequently became the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in that province, and when the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences was established in Las Villas, he assumed the responsibility of Rector and shortly after Rector of the Central University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas.

In the first half of the 1980s, he would assume the responsibility of Vice-Minister of the Teaching and Research Area. Professor Diego Cobelo was tasked with promoting the creation of 21 medical schools in different provinces of the country and also in other countries of the world.

He later served in Jamaica as an advisor to the Ministry of Health and head of Cuban collaboration in that country. Upon his return, he joined the team of the Vice-Rectory of Academic Development of ISCMH, the Leading Center for the design of Study Plans in Health Careers.

His solid professional, scientific, and pedagogical training allowed him to carry out his responsibilities with efficiency. His dignity, honesty, sense of justice, simplicity, modesty, and solidarity made him legitimately deserving of the respect, admiration, and affection of those who had the privilege of being among his students, his colleagues, and/or friends.