Educator, publisher and former Miami commissioner Demetrio Perez Jr. dies at 77

Educator, journalist and Miami politician Demetrio Perez Jr. — whose complex and complicated legacy includes the founding of Lincoln-Marti Schools and LIBRE, a publication founded in the 1960s to serve Miami’s growing Hispanic population — died Friday morning at his home following a long illness, his family said.

Perez, who also served as a Miami city commissioner in the early 1980s and five years as a Miami-Dade County School Board member, was 77.

“I salute my father on an exemplary life and I will miss him dearly,” his son Demetrio J. Perez told the Miami Herald. “To me, he was an example and part of the greatest generation of Cuban immigrants in the United States, who earned their success with tireless work and dedication to things greater than themselves. I will do my best to carry on his life and legacy. The only thing I may not miss are his relentless 7 a.m. calls from his desk at the office.”

Perez’s son wasn’t the only one to field early morning calls from his busy father.

“I’d receive text messages from him at 4 a.m.,” said former State Rep. Ralph Arza of Hialeah. “He was a tireless worker and advocate for our children. He provided school choice for children and parents who didn’t have a lot of choices.”

Perez defeated Arza for the School Board seat in 1996, but the two bonded, Arza told the Herald.

“If you look at his agenda when he was on the School Board and the current agenda in Tallahassee, they’re almost identical — vouchers, individual choice, principles that made America great. He was ahead of his time in so many ways. People went crazy when he first talked about things like school uniforms and vouchers, but history has proven him to be on the right side of all those issues,” Arza said.