Dr. Mario "Pipa" Presman

10/23/1920 - 12/15/2014

PRESMAN, DR. MARIO 'Pipa' passed away December 15, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. He was born Mieczyslaw Pressman in Poland on October 23, 1920. At the age of three, Mario left Poland for Cuba and shortly thereafter moved with his family to Quillota, Chile. When Mario was eleven years old, the Presman family returned briefly to Cuba before moving to the Dominican Republic where, after graduating high school, Mario entered the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo to study medicine. During the course of his studies in 1945, the Presman family moved once again back to Cuba where Mario restarted his medical education at the University of Havana and married his childhood sweetheart, Fanita Stone in 1946. After graduating medical school in 1951, Mario completed his Residency and Fellowship within the Department of Radiology and worked as an Associate Physician within the same department until 1959. In 1960, after the Cuban Revolution, Mario accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor of Radiology at the General Clixto Garcia University Hospital, in central Havana but, after his brother-in-law Dr. Mario Stone was arrested and narrowly escaped execution, Mario, with his wife and two young children Marsha and George, decided to flee Cuba. In 1961 Mario arrived in Miami with one suitcase and speaking little English. On arrival in Florida, Mario dedicated himself to obtaining the necessary certifications and qualifications that would allow him to practice medicine in the United States. While doing so, he secured a position at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Coral Gables, initially as a senior resident in the radiology department and then as a staff radiologist. Mario became a naturalized citizen of the United States on October, 3rd 1966. A year later received his license to practice medicine in Florida and was appointed Assistant Chief of Radiology services at Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1970 he became a Clinical Instructor on the voluntary faculty of Jackson Memorial Hospital and in 1972, a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Miami, School of Medicine. He worked in the radiology department at St. Francis Hospital in the mid-1970s and completed a year fellowship in nuclear medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami between 1978 and 1979.. Throughout his career Mario continued to pursue a greater knowledge of his chosen discipline and consistently received AMA Physician's Recognition Awards in Continuing Education from 1974 through 1989. He was an active member of the Cuban Medical Association in Exile, the Cuban Radiological Society and the Dade County Radiological Society. On his retirement, Mario was a staff radiologist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and an associate clinical professor at the University of Miami Medical School. Dr. Mario 'Pipa' Presman is survived by his beloved wife Fanita of 68 years, loving children Marsha and George and cherished grandchildren Brett, Max, Dash, Chanel & Skyler, dear sister Anita Wagner Sorojon nephews & Bigelman nephews. Chapel Service 1:00 p.m., Friday, December 19, 2014 at Levitt-Weinstein Eternal Light Funeral Center, 18840 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami Beach, FL 33180. Arrangements by Blasberg-Rubin-Zilbert Memorial Chapel (305) 865-2353