Gilbert Marrero, a retired orthopedic surgeon, recently celebrated his 101st birthday at Atria Park of Vintage Hills, a senior community in Temecula.
Marrero was born July 27, 1923, in Chicago. When he was a child, he and his family lived in Cuba for a few years and then in Mexico for eight years before returning to the United States in 1940, according to a biography of Marrero from Atria Park of Vintage Hills.
Dr. Gilbert Marrero of Temecula celebrated his 101st birthday July 27, 2024. (Courtesy of Atria Senior Living)
Before the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Marrero was a student at a university in Omaha. With the U.S. entrance into the war, he joined the U.S. Navy as a pre-med student and served as a corpsman for the Marines from 1942 to 1944. As the Navy faced a shortage of medics, he was sent back to complete his medical training at the Navy medical school and served through 1947.
After graduation from medical school, Marrero was accepted for an internship in Omaha, where he met his wife, who had been a World War II Army nurse. Following a three-year residency, he was a general practitioner in Pueblo, Colo.
In 1952, during the Korean War, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served from 1952 to 1954. He then joined his brother in California, working at a clinic that eventually became an HMO.
After four years of orthopedic surgery training in San Francisco, a year in pediatric care and a two-year fellowship in scoliosis surgery at Loma Linda University, Marrero joined Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he had a 35-year career in orthopedic surgery and scoliosis research.
When he retired at the age of 78, he bought a ranch property in Temecula, where he lived until his wife died. He then moved to Oregon to be closer to his son Denis and later returned to California, living in Hemet before moving to Atria Park of Vintage Hills in Temecula.
The senior community threw a birthday party for him during the residents’ lunch July 27, his 101st birthday.
