Ricardo D. DeGuzman

Ricardo Domingo DeGuzman
February 22, 1930 - March 30, 2019
Born into humble beginnings in the city of Gapan, Philippines, Ricardo was the youngest of five children. His father, Victorino, was a rice farmer who taught himself how to read and write, and his mother, Pascuala, made and sold clothing in the local village. Ricardo’s four older siblings - Gregoria, Lucila, Arturo, and Petronilo - all preceded him in death.
As an intelligent child, Ricardo enjoyed his schooling. At the start of World War II in 1941, while he was in grade six, his school closed as the building became a Japanese army base. As a result, his education was put on hold. For approximately three years while the war raged on, Ricardo worked on his family’s rice farm, where he was put in charge of herding the water buffaloes. Throughout his life he would often mention this as being the most challenging job he ever had. During these years, he also spent much time climbing mango and jackfruit trees while barefoot in order to gather food for his family, as well as learning to sew from his mother.
When the war ended and his education resumed, there was confusion as to which grade he should actually be placed in because the chaos of the war resulted in poor record keeping. As a result he was then placed in grade nine. He officially graduated from high school in 1948.
After high school, he attended the University of the Philippines in Manila where he studied premedicine. Following this two year undergraduate program, Ricardo was accepted into the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. He then completed four years of medical school plus one year of internship, and graduated in 1955. Ricardo then spent the next three years as a resident physician in the pediatrics department at the University of the Philippines. While completing his residency he met and courted his future wife, Dolores Dimaguila, who was pursuing an externship also at the University of the Philippines. They married in Iowa City, Iowa while on student visas on March 19, 1958.
While in Iowa, Ricardo worked for one year as a pediatrician at the University of Iowa before realizing that pediatrics was not his passion. He then spent three years focusing on internal medicine at Lakewood Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. Because their student visas were approaching expiration, they traveled back to the Philippines. Ricardo took a job at a small medical clinic in downtown Manila before spending three years teaching medicine at the University of the East College of Medicine.
Their first son, Robert, was born in Manila in 1964. In 1966, Ricardo, Dolores, and eighteen month old Robert officially immigrated to America with the assistance of a sponsorship from the Salvation Army. Once there, they settled in Covington, Kentucky where Ricardo accepted employment at Booth Memorial Hospital. During this time, their second son, Raul, was born prematurely in 1967. Due to Ricardo’s previous training in pediatrics, he was able to care for Raul who remained in the nursery at the same hospital. Ricardo remained employed there for two years, earning three dollars an hour.
In 1969, Ricardo began his almost thirty-five year career at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio where he became the Chairman of the Department of Medicine. He specialized in internal medicine and later, endocrinology. He officially retired in 2003.
He resided in Kettering, Ohio for almost 50 years in the house that he and Dolores built in 1970.
In the limited time Ricardo wasn’t focused on medicine, he found pure enjoyment while gardening and woodworking.
To those of us who loved Ricardo and were loved by him, we will sincerely miss his wit, his generosity, his resourcefulness, his humility, his resilience, his realism - and prior to dementia settling in - his brilliant mind.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dolores; his son Robert (Stacy) DeGuzman of Grand Rapids, Michigan; his son Raul DeGuzman of Charleston, South Carolina; also, by his only grandchild, Sophia DeGuzman, who he lovingly referred to as his “little girl.”
Friends and family may visit from 9:30am-10:30am on Thursday, April 4, 2019 at St. Charles Borromeo Church, followed by Mass of Christian Burial beginning at 10:30am. Ricardo will then be laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to Hospice of Dayton.