Luis F. Alvarez



Luis F. Alvarez (April 1, 1853 – May 24, 1937) was a Spanish-U.S. physician and researcher who practiced in both California and Hawaii.

Alvarez was born in La Puerta, a small village near Oviedo, Spain. His father was Eugenio Fernandez, who was in charge of the business affairs and palace in Madrid of Don Francisco de Paula, one of the Royal Princes. He was orphaned at an early age; his mother died when he was three and his father at the age of seven. When he was 13, one of his brothers took him to Havana where he secured a good education. He learned to speak English fluently and without an accent.

In 1878, he was married Clementina Schutze and in 1887 graduated from Cooper Medical College (now Stanford University) with a medical degree. After practicing in San Francisco, he traveled to Hawaii as physician on the S.S. Australia. In Honolulu, he was asked by the government to stay and become a government physician. Dr. Alvarez quickly learned to speak the Hawaiian language. In 1895, Dr. Alvarez resigned his position in Waialua to prepare himself for work as Superintendent of a new experimental hospital for the treatment of leprosy which was to be established in Kalihi, a suburb of Honolulu. In order to learn research bacteriology, Dr. Alvarez went &mdash; at his own expense &mdash; for six months of intensive study at Johns Hopkins University.

On his return, he developed a method for the better diagnosis of macular leprosy. With a small mouse-tooth forceps he would lift up a little piece of skin, snip it off with scissors, grind it into a fluid in a small glass mortar, and then stain the fluid for Hansen's bacilli. This method or a modification of it has been used ever since. Dr. Alvarez developed a serum by injecting Hansen's bacilli into horses. He used this on a number of Hansen's disease patients with encouraging results.

Two of Dr. Alvarez' children would rise to national prominence:  Mabel Alvarez became a well-known artist and oil painter, and  Walter C. Alvarez became a noted physician.

His grandson and great-grandson have also become well known: Luis Alvarez, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner; and Walter Alvarez, Professor of Geology at the University of California, Berkeley. Alvarez was a very great student of medicine throughout his entire life, and owned a large practice up until his death from pneumonia at the age of 84.