Frank Guerra

City Club member Frank Guerra was born in 1945 in Manhattan to poor Jewish immigrant parents from Poland and Spain. Early on Frank knew his only ticket out was through education and hard work, so he excelled in many sports, memorized Shakespeare, taught himself music and arts, studied at Johns Hopkins to become a psychiatrist, and an anesthesiologist. In short, Frank was The Man.

Frank was smart, funny and hard working. He woke up at 4 am every day to be at the operating table by 7 am, and saw over 20 patients a day for many years. Throughout his career, Frank literally saved thousands of lives. He loved beautiful women, married four times, had two sons and drove fast cars. By all standards, Frank was an American success story.

It was not until a few months ago that Frank learned, the hard way, to be really happy, one needs to be a Human success story too, so while he spent most of his life making sure he was always the smartest person in the room, it was not until recently that he learned to open his heart and let in others. Unfortunately, this opening happened because in September Frank’s 42-year old son died in a tragic surfing accident, literally breaking Frank's heart, and allowing his cancer to end his life. 

As a community, we need to teach and learn from each other. Those of us who had the privilege of hanging with Frank in his last few months learned to slow down, smell the roses and let our loved ones know how we feel about them.

This Thanksgiving, I am hugging everyone I love and say “this hug is from my friend Frank Guerra," who at the end wished he had spent more time with his sons.

May Frank’s soul rest in eternal peace.

– Sina.