Obituary of Roberto M. Guerrero

Roberto M. Guerrero, 1938 – 2019

A PERFECT eternal optimist, Roberto was born the seventh child of a seventh child in Don Luis (Bisbee), Arizona to Ramon and Guadalupe Guerrero. Whether there is any truth to the legend of the birth position, Roberto had special gifts, primarily a never-ending optimism that allowed him to see everything as PERFECT. Born under a wanderin’ star, Roberto spent his life embracing new places and people.

Roberto attended Bisbee High School, playing on the “famed” team which proudly played the 1956 season without defeat. Football behind him, he dropped out of high school, earned a GED and enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as an MP during the Korean conflict. Severely injured in a shooting accident while in Korea, Roberto returned to the states to spend a year in a military hospital in El Paso, Texas. While in the hospital, he channeled his energy into reading, a passion passed to him by his parents, who despite each only having elementary-level educations, had instilled in their children a love of reading and the importance of education; fundamental values he would pass on to his children and grandchildren.

Upon his discharge from the hospital and service, Roberto returned to Arizona. In 1961 he married Josefina “Fina” and shortly thereafter, following the death of his oldest brother, Manuel Gustavo, he returned to the Army for a second term serving in France, Germany and Davis, California where along with his wife and oldest son, Manuel Gustavo, he concluded his service as an MP in the US Army.

Upon final discharge, he returned to Tucson and re-entered the University of Arizona, working at the U.S. Post Office unloading trucks at night and studying Italian by day. While their family grew, adding son Roberto Javier and daughter Elsa, Roberto continued working at the USPS while completing his studies and teaching Italian at the U of A. Supported always by Fina, he was able to complete his university work and in 1969, received a B.A. degree in Italian with his three oldest children, parents and ever-supportive wife, Fina, in attendance. 

Following graduation, he continued working at the USPS in Tucson and in 1972 was invited to join a management program that took him to Denver, Colorado. The move would be the first step in a 30-year postal career that took him across the United States with increasing responsibilities from Los Angeles to Denver and from Boston to San Juan, Puerto Rico. When he retired in 1993, Roberto was a senior postal executive.

His career in the postal service, opened doors that would take Roberto from Berne, Switzerland to Zamboanga in the Philippines. Having distinguished himself in postal operations at the Los Angeles Bulk Mail Center (LABMC), where he was instrumental in improving efficiencies, he was often asked to participate across regions and in international programs designed to provide advisory to postal operations around the world.

While living in California, Roberto and Fina welcomed youngest daughter, Fini whose first adventure would be living in South America. In 1977, Roberto was invited to join the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a department of the United Nations, as an Expert in postal operations. Together with his wife and four children, Roberto moved to Lima, Peru from where he traveled throughout the continent. The experience would impact his children forever as they not only learned to love travel, embrace new cultures and people, their immersion in another country served as the foundation that proved instrumental in their own work – three of Roberto and Fina’s children have gone on to work in Latin America, Asia and Europe.

To Roberto, “retirement” was simply an opportunity to do something else. Upon returning to Tucson, he put his passion for education to work, teaching at the Pascua Yaqui alternative high school program, then at the Nosotros alternative education program supporting at-risk youth. To Roberto, this was the most satisfying work of his life. He understood and loved his students, encouraging them, like he did his own children. The primary lesson: hard work and education will take you anywhere.

Roberto was the embodiment of a life well lived. He lived with a passion for people, places and his family. By example, he taught his children to look out for each other and their mother, never whine, and to NEVER lie, cheat or steal. (“The only thing I hate is crybabies, liars, cheaters and thieves!”)

The protagonist of so many stories and adventures, his niece Linda Redding said it best: My Tio Rovi lived so many lives, and in each one he was a man. He was the kind of man that men should be.

Well said.

Life is beautiful, temporary and exactly what you make of it. Roberto M. Guerrero made it … PERFECT!

Roberto is survived by his wife of nearly-58 years, Josefina, four children Manuel Gustavo (Tamara), Roberto Javier (Tina), Elsa (Harlan Lyons), and Fini, and eight grandchildren: Roberto Manuel (Lorena), Victoria Heisler (David), Michael Lyons, Roberto A., Kaitlyn, Alessandro, Daniel and Gustavo Roberto, and great grandson Abel.

He is also survived by his sibling Adalberto (Ana), Javier and Dr. Guadalupe Romero and many nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his mother and father, Guadalupe and Ramon, brothers Gilberto, Ramon and Manuel Gustavo and sisters, Maria de las Mercedes “Merci” and Margarita Rubi.

Visitation will be held at Bring’s Funeral Home from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 16. The family invites the faithful to pray a rosary with them at 7:00 p.m.  A funeral mass to celebrate his life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 17 at Most Holy Trinity, 1300 Greasewood.

The family will host a breakfast for family and friends preceding the mass at Most Holy Trinity at 9:00 a.m.

Interment at Holy Hope cemetery will follow the mass.

While disappointed with the treatment of our nations Veterans, Roberto was proud of his family’s military service which began in the 1940s, spanning every branch of service and continues today with three active duty Marines, one Soldier in the Army, one Army Reservist and one officer candidate in the Navy. So, in lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Veterans’ assistance programs.