The religious, business and academic communities of Santiago gathered there yesterday to deliver a tribute and bid a fond farewell to 77-year-old Flavio Dario Espinal, who died of liver cancer yesterday. To his credit, Espinal lived a quiet life, while making a big difference with his example and efforts.
During the government of President Antonio Guzman, Espinal was attorney general, honoring what a public servant should be with his work for the country. He was a legal counselor and the founder of the PUCMM and its law school. He was also an exceptionally industrious banker, creating perhaps the most solid banking institution in the country, the Asociacion Cibao de Ahorros y Prestamos. Santiago’s Archbishop Ramon de la Rosa, and PUCMM’s rector, Monsignor Agripino Nunez, had words of high praise for the deceased, as did other parish leaders of Santiago, representatives of the Asociacion Cibao and his grandchildren, who together encouraged others to follow in his footsteps at the wake held at the Santiago cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Nuris and three children who have followed in his footsteps. His son, Flavio Dario Espinal, is a former Dominican ambassador before the Organization of American States, and today dean of the Legal School of the PUCMM branch in Santo Domingo. His daughter is a professor of political sociology at the Temple University in New Jersey, and his eldest son is a specialist in agriculture, former deputy minister of agriculture and now officer in a regional agriculture organization.