Joaquin S Aldrete

Joaquin Salcedo Aldrete was born on March 2, 1936 in Mexico City, where he lived throughout his childhood. His parents were Carmen and Joaquin Aldrete and they had one other child, Antonio, who was a year younger. During the 1940’s, when tourism began to take off in Mexico, Joaquin’s father took a job at a travel agency as a driver and guide, catering to American tourists, and he and Carmen eventually became the owners of the business. In his teens, Joaquin worked as a guide at his parents travel agency. This is how he met his future wife, Melinda Luz Santoyo. She was from Los Angeles, but her family sometimes vacationed in Mexico, and patronized the travel agency. Joaquin and Melinda's relationship developed when she spent a semester abroad in Mexico City in 1956. From an early age, Joaquin had aspired to become a doctor, and after university at the Central University of Mexico, he went to medical school at the School of Medicine of the National University of Mexico, earning his degree in 1959. During the final phase of Medical School, he did six months of public service as the doctor for the small, isolated jungle town of Palizada, where he tended to the indigenous peoples as well as a team of engineers searching for oil. He and Melinda were married in 1960 and he did his medical internship in Rochester, NY. The couple then moved to Rochester, MN where he did his medical residency at the Mayo Clinic, specializing in gastrointestinal surgery. In 1964 Joaquin became a U.S. citizen, and in 1966, his son, Gregory, was born. Immediately upon completing his residency, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent two years at Ft. Gordon, Georgia as an army surgeon, operating on soldiers who had been injured in Viet Nam, and then flown directly to the U.S. for surgery. He was discharged from the Army in 1969 with the rank of Captain, and took a job as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine of the University of Alabama in Birmingham. UAB was just beginning a phase of rapid growth, and Joaquin was a significant part of that process. He was particularly active in organ transplantation, performing hundreds of kidney transplants and initiating a successful liver transplantation program, including performing the first 20 liver transplants done in the southeast. He established a program for bringing promising young doctors from Mexico and Columbia to spend a year at UAB, learning the latest techniques, then returning to their home countries to apply their medical knowledge and skills. He was an active researcher and prolific publisher, authoring several hundred scientific articles and book chapters. He worked at UAB for 30 years, rising to the rank of Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery. He retired in 2000, and he and Melinda moved to Carlsbad, California within sight of the ocean. In 2013, they returned to Rochester, MN, residing at Charter House, a retirement facility run by the Mayo Clinic. In retirement, Joaquin, was able to indulge a lifelong love of music, particularly of traditional Mexican tunes from the 1940’s and 1950’s. He delighted in collecting these songs and making compilations, which he would give to friends. Joaquin died on May 4, 2023 at the age of 87, after 63 years of marriage to Melinda. He passed away in St. Mary’s hospital, the very same one where, more than half a century earlier, he had done his medical residency and his son had been born. He is survived by his brother Antonio, an anesthesiologist; his son Gregory, a history professor; his son’s wife Alicia, an author; and Melinda.