Oduber

Dr. Gustavo A. Oduber (1928-2001) was born on February 28th, 1928 to Simon “Champi” Quant Oduber and Sarah Oduber Arends. Dr. Oduber was kindly given the name Dolfi by his parents and friends at the time as he grew up on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba which is part known as the ABC islands which included Curacao and Bonaire.

Dr. Oduber went on to study at Mount St. Mary’s College in Emitsburg, Maryland and continued his dental studies at the University of Maryland Dental School in 1953 and was the youngest graduate from his class and VP of his Alma Matter. His eloquence, intellect and commanding character was due to his strong genetics handed down from his distinguished family history and background when the first Oduber named Jean-Pierre arrived from France via Spain during the French revolution in the mid 19th century. The name Oduber was originally spelt “Audubert” in French.

His father was a member of the Panamanian Consulate on the island as well as president of the Rotary Club. As the Chinese immigrated to the Caribbean his father, by Dutch law governing the islands, for the Chinese families to be able to live in Aruba one must have an Aruban “guardian” thus making it legal to acquire residency. So Champi sign off for 5 Chinese families and up to today the descendants of both are well regarded as family for ever (Chinese way for honor + respect). Sarah, his mother was an astute business woman during the 1930’s to well over 1960’s which was very unusual thus making her somewhat ahead of her times.

Dr. Oduber became the first dentist along with his friend Dr. Eloy Arends in Aruba as such he was involved in numerous functions in politics and had worked as a dentist for the government for some time. He was a senator for 16 years and at one point president of his party called Partido Patriotico Arubano (PPA). He was elected by the parliament as Minister of Education. During his tenure he was nominated to the first Latin American Congress in 1974 in Venezuela where he joined forces with his relative from Costa Rica Daniel Oduber who later became the first elected democratic president of Costa Rica in 1975. The John F. Kennedy Technical School was the first vocational School in Aruba that Dr. Oduber had the honor to name it after one of the greatest Presidents of the U.S. Dr. Oduber married Julia Leonor Quigley Figueroa from Puerto Rico who he met while in dental school. She was extremely talented and later on became one of the foremost primitive artists on the island. Julie as she was called came from the one of the prominent families in Puerto Rico. The Historic Society of Puerto Rico wrote a historical bibliography book of her family. The story goes that Don Jose Ramon Figueroa, a coffee Baron during the industrial revolution in the 19th century was the exclusive exporter of coffee to the Vatican as well as a friend to Thomas Edison. Consequently Don Jose introduced the first electricity to Puerto Rico and was the founder of a small town called Villalba in the central cordillera where his coffee plantations were located. The book was titled “El Duque De Villalba” accordingly.

During their marriage they had four children Gustavo II(International Trader - www.transglobalresource.us) has a son Gustavo III and two grandchildren Julia Leonor & Gustavo IV and resides today in Miami is also a pen & ink artist, Richard married to Shirleen have two children who lives in Frankfurt and is a Master Sergeant with 21 years in the U.S. Army (tours of Duties Gulf War I and Afghanistan), Glenn a contractor today, and of course their beloved sister Carmen Yeguez-Oduber with two children who is a successful business woman both residing in Aruba. Today all four children have one of the largest collections of Dutch Caribbean paintings.

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