Luis Enrique Rueda Otero Born:

Socorro, Santander Socorro is a town and municipality in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia. It was founded in 1681 by José de Archila and José Díaz Sarmiento.The town was very influential in the history of Colombia. There began the revolt of the ...

on August 18, 1910 - Died:

Montería Montería () is a municipality and city located in northern Colombia and is the capital of the Departments of Colombia, Department of Córdoba Department, Córdoba. The city is located away from the Caribbean sea, by the Sinú River. The city an ...

, Córdoba on July 5, 1974 was a dentist, today regarded as the ''“Father of Dentistry”'' in the State of Cordoba, Colombia. A renowned Colombian Dentist, Politician, Community Organizer, athlete, artist and philanthropist, Dr. Rueda-Otero obtained his DDS degree from the Facultad Dental de Cartagena in 1932 (this institution, now closed, had no connection with the

University of Cartagena The University of Cartagena ( es, link=no, Universidad de Cartagena), also called UniCartagena, is a departmental public coeducational research university based primarily in the city of Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia. The university offers educ ...

Career and accomplishments

In his practice, Dr. Rueda met the dental needs of the people of Lorica,

Cerete Cerete (Bergamasque: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Bergamo in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about northeast of Bergamo. Cerete borders the following municipalities: Bossico, Gand ...

, San Pelayo, San Carlos, Garzones among all other southern and middles regions of the

Sinú River Sinú River (), is a river in northwestern Colombia that flows mostly through the Córdoba Department and into the Caribbean. The river is the third most important river after the Magdalena River and the Cauca River in the Caribbean Region. It i ...

. He stood out as a renowned endodontist, periodontist, and oral rehabilitation surgeon. He was an excellent violinist and a lover of music. Dr. Rueda was also a committed sportsman who encouraged the development of organized sports. Eight years after his death, Club de Golf Jaraguay in Monteria, Cordoba, honored Dr. Rueda with a national amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tournament under his name. The Copa Luis Enrique Rueda Otero is the most celebrated sporting events in the state (departamento) of Cordoba and one of the most important amateur tournaments of golf in the southern Atlantic coast of Colombia. In 1939, he was councilman of Monteria and he was part of the board that sought to create the state (departamento) of Sinu (1939) and later the state (departamento) of Cordoba (1951). He also aided in the presidential campaigns of Eduardo Santos,

Carlos Lleras Restrepo Carlos Alberto Lleras Restrepo (12 April 1908 – 27 September 1994) was a Colombian politician and lawyer who served the 22nd President of Colombia from 1966 to 1970. Biographic data Lleras was born in Bogotá, on 12 April 1908. He was the ...

and

Alfonso López Pumarejo Alfonso López Pumarejo (31 January 1886 – 20 November 1959) was a Colombian political figure, who twice served as President of Colombia, as a member of the Colombian Liberal Party. He served as President of Colombia for the first time between ...

. In 1958, he founded ASOCOR (Odontological Association of Cordoba), for which he was its only president. In 2001 he was honored with the title of the father of Dentistry and Odontology in the state (departamento) of Cordoba in Colombia.

Personal life

On April 3, 1932, he married Dominga Lacharme Altamiranda in Monteria with whom he had six children: Leoni Beatriz Rueda Lacharme, Esther Rueda Lacharme, Maria Eugenia Rueda Lacharme, Luis Enrique Rueda Lacharme, Francisco Rueda Lacharme, Gustavo Rueda Lacharme. In the 1950s he separated from his first wife and lived in common law marriage at his estate near Monteria with his second partner Neda Minerva Gloria Escobar who he could never marry due to the lack of separation between church and state in Colombia during that era. With Neda Minerva he had three children: Luis Enrique Rueda Gloria, Judith Lucila Rueda Gloria, Pedro Elias Rueda Gloria and later adopted Regina Victoria Rueda Gloria in 1966.

References

* Castro Núñez, Jaime. Historia de la odontología en Córdoba. Ediciones de la Universidad del Sinú, serie científica. Montería, 2001. http://www.quimica.es/enciclopedia/Luis_Enrique_Rueda.html http://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/odont/article/viewFile/2468/2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rueda-Otero, Luis Enrique 1910 births 1974 deaths Colombian dentists 20th-century dentists