Lino Gerardo Zequeira Fernandez, 88, of Altamonte Springs, Florida, passed away on February 3, 2023.
Lino was born in Havana, Cuba, to Paula Fernandez Sotolongo and Lino Zequeira Rios on September 24, 1934. He grew up in the town of Madruga, not far from Havana, where he spent a happy childhood with his twin brothers, Roberto and Alberto Zequeira.
As an adolescent, he enjoyed playing pool and dancing. He also spent some time in a band playing the bongos. Gifted in mathematics, he attended the University of Havana, where he studied civil engineering; becoming an engineering professor there in his early 20s.
The Cuban revolution forced him, like many others, to choose between conformity in his own country or freedom somewhere else. Thus, he moved to Caracas, Venezuela in the 1980s, where he taught engineering at Universidad Metropolitana, one of the most prestigious in the country.
Many of his former students stayed in touch with him throughout the years and remembered him fondly. As recently as 2020, former students from his Venezuela days held a Zoom party for him to wish him well on his birthday.
One of them, Alberto Yanowsky, said he would be “forever grateful” for Lino.
“He was a true ‘maestro,’” he said. “He had humanity; he was an artisan who showed humility, who was selfless. All that was required to impart knowledge with passion…to share with Lino was to share ‘soul.’”
Eventually, Lino joined his family in the United States and settled in New York City, where he worked for the City of New York and made many valuable friends. He retired in Miami, Florida, and lived with his daughter Claudia Zequeira, his only child, in Orlando in his later years.
A lover of the arts, Lino enjoyed traveling and reading. He was a great conversationalist, regaling friends and acquaintances with lengthy discussions about a wide range of topics. Recently, philosophy became a strong interest.
“He was the smartest man I have known,” said his daughter Claudia. “He could easily talk about the strength of materials, an obscure painter, or the Stoics.”
Besides his brothers and daughter, Lino is survived by his son-in-law, Henry Pierson Curtis, his granddaughter Pia Curtis, of Altamonte Springs, and sisters-in-law Maria Julia de Vignier and Mirta Lanza, as well as several nieces and nephews who will miss him dearly.
He was preceded in death by his sister Hilda Alvarez and his close cousin Mirta Llinás.
A memorial service will be held at Baldwin Fairchild Funeral Home, 994 E Altamonte Dr, Altamonte Springs, Fl 32701, on Saturday, February 11, at 3:00 p.m.