Ignacio Silva, 90, Passes Away August 30
By Space Coast Daily // September 11, 2013
OBITUARY
BREVARD COUNTY • INDIALANTIC, FLORIDA – Ignacio Silva, 90, engineer by education, corporate business executive and global consultant in the construction business by profession, and a resident of Indialantic, Fla., for more than 30 years, passed away peacefully surrounded by family Friday, August 30, 2013 at 7:47 a.m.
He was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on November 20, 1922, to Hortensia Cárdenas Reyes and Felipe Silva Fernández. Ignacio completed his high school education at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, Ga., and University High School in Ann Arbor, Mich. From there he attended the University of Havana earning a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering.
He was one of the early exiles from Cuba thanks to his uncanny foresight and prediction that the Castro regime was to inevitably become totalitarian and repressive. In 1960, leaving everything behind in Cuba, he settled his family in River Edge, N.J., from where he commuted daily to the Woolworth Building in downtown N.Y.C.
That was the beginning of an international career in which he contracted and managed construction projects from Tierra del Fuego to Hong Kong to Riyadh. With his wife of nearly 65 years, Teresita, now departed, he raised five children who adored their parents and were blessed by his spiritual and street-smart guidance. At 6’3″ in his prime he exuded dignity, diplomacy, and was well known for his gentlemanly manner and kind smile.
Ignacio played tennis as a member of the Eau Gallie Yacht Club into his 80s, and was a member of Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church where he was a RCIA minister.
He is survived by his five children, sons Ignacio, Jr., of Lancaster, Pa.; Fernando of Folsom, Calif., and Ed of McKinney, Texas; daughters Helena Silva Chapman of Indialantic and Andria Silva of Boston, Mass.; nine grandchildren, five great grandchildren and his brother and sister-in-law, René and Asela Silva of Key Biscayne, Fla., who will miss him dearly.
Earth will be a lesser place without him but heaven has welcomed him in joy. A Funeral Mass and Burial will be held at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Indialantic on Saturday, December 28, 2013, at 10:30 a.m.
Beach Funeral Homes & Cremation Services
1689 S. Patrick Drive
Indian Harbour Beach, Florida 32937
TEL: 321-777-4640
E-MAIL: info@beachfuneralhome.com
