‘City Doc’ who cared for first responders dies at 96
Orlando’s “City Doc,” who called Orlando his home for more than half of his life and cared for the city’s police officers and firefighters, died Friday at age 96.
Born in Camaguey, Cuba, in 1921, Dr. Juan P. Boudet Jr. always knew he was going to be a doctor, his son John Boudet said.
“He comforted everyone he treated,” he said. “He was extremely generous with everyone he encountered.”
Juan Boudet interned at what was then Orange Memorial Hospital (now Orlando Health) in 1948, and returned in 1964 after fleeing the Cuban revolution in 1959. He opened his first practice on Hillcrest Avenue in what is now Thornton Park and served as a father figure to many.
“We were one of the first Cuban families in Central Florida,” John Boudet said. “Our home was a gathering place for exiles when they first arrived. He was prominent in those early years in assisting so many young Latin physicians in getting their start.”
In his role as the bureau chief of the occupational medical unit for the City of Orlando, he treated the area’s first responders. He was very proud of his role and the license plate on his car even read “City Doc,” which he used to park all around Orlando and not get a ticket, John Boudet said.
When Juan Boudet started his first practice in downtown Orlando, many of his patients couldn't pay him, so he came home with gifts like an ashtray or a ham, said Lucy Boudet, one of his daughters. His wife would throw them away, but Juan Boudet would pull them out of the garbage bins and keep them in a closet.
John Boudet explained one such gift, a velvet painting of a naked woman that a patient had given to him in the 1970s. Juan Boudet hid it from his wife until it was found in the attic 20 years later. He gave it to his grandson who put it in his dorm room, and since then, it’s been a family tradition to pass it down from bachelor to bachelor in the family, John Boudet said.
John Boudet emphasized that his father treated everyone the same, regardless if they were a senator or a groundskeeper.
“No one was too high or too low for him to connect with,” he said. “I will miss his gentle manner the most.”
Juan Boudet and his wife Carmen Boudet were married for more than 60 years until she died in 2011. They raised five children, all of whom still live in Orlando. Juan Boudet is survived by his sister Maria, his five children and their spouses, 13 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
His funeral service will be Monday at 2 p.m. at the St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Altamonte Springs.