Pedro Ruiz, MD December 31, 1936 - March 14, 2023

to Spain, and then later to France to continue his medical studies at the University of Paris. During this time, Pedro continued his courtship with Angela through weekly letters until she was able to join him in Paris where they were married.

Pedro and Angela’s first home together was his small room in the Casa de Cuba dormitory where he lived in close community with a tight-knit group of life-long friends, many of whom were also Cuban exiles. During this time, Pedro and Angela welcomed their son, Pedro Pablo.

With steely determination, ten years after first starting his medical studies, Pedro finally achieved his medical degree at the University of Paris in 1964, and upon graduation, ventured back across the Atlantic Ocean to begin his residency in general psychiatry at the University of Miami.

As a young psychiatrist, Pedro began his academic career in 1968 at Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he became the Director of the Lincoln Hospital Community Mental Health Center in the South Bronx in New York. It was during this time that Pedro and Angela welcomed their daughter, Angela Maria.

Pedro’s passionate work with minority and underprivileged patients in the South Bronx was well noted, leading to additional positions as Director of the Bronx State Psychiatric Center, tenured Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Vice-Chair of the Albert Einstein Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

In 1981, Pedro relocated his family from New York to Houston after accepting a position as tenured Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. His life’s mission to address disparities in access to mental health care for underserved communities continued through his concurrent appointment as the Chief of Psychiatry at Ben Taub General Hospital.

Pedro would later transition to the UT Houston McGovern Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences also as a tenured Professor of Psychiatry. It was during his tenure at UT that he achieved his greatest professional recognitions, having been elected as President of The American College of Psychiatrists (2000-2001), The American Association of Social Psychiatry (2000-2002), The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (2002-2003), The American Psychiatric Association (2006-2007), The World Psychiatric Association (2008-2011) and The World Association on Dual Disorders (2015-2018, 20182021).

Pedro was also a world-renowned speaker, travelling throughout many countries to speak on a wide breadth of topics within psychiatry, particularly on the themes of dual disorders, cross-cultural psychiatry, and mental health parity. However, his likely most personally significant speaking engagement was his triumphant return to Cuba almost 50 years later as one of the key presenters at the World Psychiatric Association Conference in Havana.

In 2009, Pedro Ruiz moved to Miami where he would serve in his final professional position as Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Vice-Chairman and Director of Clinical Programs at the University of Miami School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, thus completing his illustrious career at Jackson Memorial Hospital where he had begun his practice of psychiatry 50 years earlier.

Over the span of his career, Pedro served on more than 40 editorial boards, sat on countless National and International Committees and authored more than 1000 publications, most notably “Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook” and the Ninth and Tenth editions of “Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry”. His accomplishments, awards and recognitions are too many to list.

In an excerpt from the journal, “The Psychiatrist”, first published in 2011, Pedro shared his reflections on his reasons for entering medicine: “I decided to become a physician at age 10 when my father died from an unknown cause. I almost died at age 12 from peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix, which kept me in bed for about 6 months. A few years later, when I was about 15 years old, I read some of Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Stekel’s writings. I decided to become a psychiatrist at this time.” Pedro also shared how he would like to be remembered: “As a physician/ psychiatrist who cared not only for those with illnesses, including mental illness, but also cared for the most disadvantaged and poorest individuals across the world.”

In his lifetime, Pedro embraced the importance of hard work and education, a value he instilled in his children and grandchildren. Pedro is predeceased by his father Pedro Ruiz Fonseca, his mother Rosa Maria Quintero Hortas, his father-in-law Pablo Danta Cabrera, his mother-in-law Cardidad Cardenas Torres, his granddaughter Cecilia Therese Ruiz, his nephew Pedro Adrian Pérez Ruiz and his sister-in-law Rosalia Danta . He is survived by his beloved wife Angela Ruiz Danta, his son Pedro Pablo Ruiz (Julie Santos Ruiz) of Galveston, Texas, his daughter Angela Maria Ruiz-Holguin (Omar Holguin Jr) of Houston, Texas, and his grandchildren Francisco Ruiz, Pedro Ruiz Jr, Omar Holguin III, and Pablo Holguin. He is also survived by a sister Maria Rosa Ruiz Quintero (Adrian Pérez Franco) of Madrid, Spain, a brotherin-law Pablo Danta of Center Moriches, New York and several nieces and nephews including Marina Rosa Pérez Ruiz and her daughter Laura Marina C. Pérez as well as Clara Nogués Ortuño and her sons Marcos, Alberto, and Pedro Perez Nogués.

A celebration of Pedro’s life will be held at Memorial Plan Westchester Funeral Home at 9800 SW 24th Street in Miami, Florida on Saturday, March 25 with visitation at 11 am, followed by a service at 12 pm. Burial will follow at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Doral, Florida.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Pedro Ruiz’s name may be made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness or the Alzheimer’s Association.