Jose Luis Otero Souto

Winston-Salem- Mr. José Luis Otero Souto, 91, passed away June 20, 2012 at Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home. He was born March 6, 1921 in Cuba, raised in Sagua la Grande, Las Villas, Cuba where his parents founded the Hotel Siglo XX in 1895. He was educated by the Jesuits at El Sagrado Corazón de Jesus and El Colegio de Belén. He studied at the University of Havana, graduated with a degree in Chemical Agronomic Engineering, and worked in sugar refineries and paper mills in Cuba and Venezuela. In 1950, he married the love of his life, Nelida, and had three children. They lived in Trinidad, Cuba where he worked as an engineer at a major paper mill called La Papelera Pulpa Cuba, S.A. He brought his family into political exile to the United States in 1962 as a result of the Cuban Revolution of 1959. He settled his family in New York where he first worked for the engineering firm of Parsons and Whitmore, then for the New York Sugar Trade Laboratories. He retired to Winston-Salem in 1991 where he lived happily in a community he loved. He was an intellectual, a voracious reader, a man of strength, beloved by his family and many friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Evaristo Otero and Isolina Souto; his siblings, Evaristo Otero Souto of Cherry Hill, NJ and Maria Antonia Otero Souto de Rivera of Granada, Spain. He is survived by his loving wife, Nelida Otero; his children and their spouses, Jose Luis Otero (Helen Olchak), Nelida Otero Flatow (Michael Flatow), Maria Otero Boisvert (Michael Boisvert); his grandchildren, Mathew (Lauren) and Rebecca Flatow, Daniel and Elizabeth Otero, Gabriel, Joseph, and Isabel Boisvert; and his great grandchild, Sydney Flatow. A funeral Mass will be held at 10:30am, Saturday, June 23, 2012 at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church with Father Joseph Angelini as Celebrant. The family will receive friends from 6:00pm until 8:00pm on Friday at Hayworth-Miller Silas Creek Chapel. Memorials may be made to Hospice & Palliative Care Center, 101 Hospice Ln., Winston-Salem, NC 27103. Online condolences may be made at www.hayworth-miller.com.

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