Cesar Humberto Colon-Bonet's Obituary
Dr. Cesar Humberto Colón-Bonet, 90, born in Lares, Puerto Rico, on November 21, 1929 passed away at home on April 8, 2020. Cesar was a longtime resident of Lakeview, MI. He embraced Lakeview and all its lovely people and life as a physician in a rural small town.
Although born an islander, he loved life in rural Michigan. He enjoyed playing with the land and all its possibilities. He dabbled with enthusiasm in so many things: cooking, golfing, tree planting, skiing, flying, gardening, hunting, fishing and even making potato wine and maple syrup. One could never come away from his home without experiencing some form of his love of hospitality and perhaps even a nip or two of some type of spirits. He embraced the joy of making connections and enjoying the people that small town living offered.
Dr. Bonet, as he was known to most, graduated from Aguadilla High School in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and Polytechnic Institute of Puerto Rico. He was one of the youngest graduates from Jefferson Medical School in 1954. He served stateside in the United States Navy and in the Naval Reserves as a medical officer. He worked as a physician in Chicago, Detroit and Grand Rapids before finding his people and working in a small town practice at Kelsey Memorial Hospital. He was a partner in Lakeview Medical Center for the majority of his career. He also worked as an emergency room physician, flight examiner and part-time as a local realtor.
Cesar was something of a renaissance man, loving opera, classical music and even knew the names of the specific works of many well-known composers. Cesar had a passion for flying and loved flying his one engine Luscombe over the countryside of Michigan. His love for flying led him to become an FAA Flight Examiner in which capacity he served for 50 years, performing flight physicals for future and current pilots. This led to his avid interest in becoming a ham radio operator, further supporting his interest in electronics which interested him even as a boy.
He loved tinkering with many hand tools and tried wood engraving and routing wood, and learned to use home welding equipment. He could repair water heaters, furnaces, faucets, washers, dryers; if anything broke he was ready to tackle repairs, all because he had a deep fascination with how things worked and how to repair them. He worked on his farm machinery and loved dabbling in small farming projects. He taught his children the importance of ecology by planting hundreds of pine trees from the county conservation districts' annual tree sale.
Cesar's immense enjoyment of golf led to him planning and plotting out a small golf course, having at one time nearly completing 5 holes with roughed in fairways, tees and greens and irrigation with sprinklers. He studied books about soil makeup, grass mixtures, pesticide applications and how to build greens, as well as the irrigation systems for watering his golf course. He knew how to operate many different pieces of farm machinery that he used for trying to make his dream golf course come to fruition, a project never completed but was his absolute joy in planning.
Cesar was very artistic and occasionally drew and was very good at sketching-whether to better explain a medical procedure to a patient or how he wanted to build something for his hobby farming efforts.
Cesar loved learning by listening and watching a plethora of videos from The Great Courses; algebra, making wine, physics, and chemistry, famous works by musicians, artists, writers. He had an insatiable appetite for building his mind. He knew how to find the vein in a rock or boulder and how to split it. He was much loved and this was reflected by many family members, patients, and friends. He was famous for his Puerto Rican style pig roasts and could season a pig roast that could match a top chef.
He was the last surviving child of Agapito and Carmen (BONET) Acosta-Colon. He is survived by his wife, Myrna (Rushmore), of 40 years and many children that share his enthusiasm for life, cooking and adventure: Charlene Colón, Cesar (Rose) Colón, Denise (Ray Waite) Colón-Bonet, Ivan Scott (Malinda) Colón, Glenn (Jeanne) Colón-Bonet, Will (Mary-Catherine Zolikoff) Colón, Cara Colón (Russ) McLauchlan, Francis (Lynn) Colón, and Armand Colón. He is also survived by ten grandchildren. He is survived by sister and brother in laws; Terry and Paulette (Rushmore)Thomas, Vicki (Rushmore) Seymour, Kelly and Diane(Ulrich) Rushmore, Terrence and Donna (Rushmore) Herd, and many nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life Gathering is planned and details will be shared as available. Cards and condolences may be sent to Mrs. Myrna Colon, 6457 Cutler Rd. Lakeview, MI 48850. Memorial tributes may be shared, in honor of Dr. Bonet with Tamarack District Library, 832 Lincoln Avenue, Lakeview, MI 48850 or ? Lakeview Youth Clinic/Spectrum Kelsey Hospital, 100 Michigan St. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 or Hospice of MI.
Our small town has lost a familiar face and a wonderful human being. Godspeed papa!
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