Mary Perez de Marranzini, founder of the Dominican Republic’s Rehab Association, passed away on 8 May 2025. She was 98 years old.
She was a tiny woman, with a very common name: Mary Perez. Yet she was a giant, a truly magnificent individual that changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Dominicans.
Mary Perez had a son who suffered from polio. She found that there were no Dominican institutions that could aid people such as her son. She set out to change all that, and she founded the Dominican Rehabilitation Association in 1963.
Her determination and quiet forcefulness brought into existence the non-profit that today sees about 7,000 a day in 34 different centers around the entire Dominican Republic. It would be very difficult to find another such astounding civic work in the entire 180-year history of the Dominican Republic.
Not a fixture at society events, Mary Perez worked for the disabled, the injured, the sick, and all those who needed help with their mobility, with a quiet determination that was a force unto itself.
While sitting on executive committees that dealt with the disabled or those incapacitated by accident or illness, Mary Perez was seldom in the spotlight. That was not her way of doing things.
Only in 2008 when she was awarded the Diario Libre’s award as Woman of the Year was her picture featured on a front page. Her work was silent, it was effective, and truly, there are millions of Dominicans, rich and poor, who owe her a debt of gratitude.
The nation owes Mary Perez a very deep and sincere “Thank You”.
Her son with polio would go on to become a business sector leader and the current head of the Unified Council of Power Distribution Companies (CUED), the lead government power utility entity.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
12 May 2025