Dedication, memorial set for Dr. Lucero
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June 9, 2013 |
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| Dr.
Ernie Lucero (left), prepares to break
ground in 1998 on the site where he
would practice for 15 years as then
Boundary Community Hospital
administrator Bill McClintock and others
look on. That building will soon bear
his name. |
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by Marcia Morman
A close-up of Ernie Lucero as he stands
shovel-ready for the ground breaking ceremony of
the building that would be his office for the
next fifteen years reveals the hint of a quirky
smile — a smile that was often seen by friends
and family and is remembered with much fondness.
 In
honor of Ernie Lucero, and all of the community
work he did, both in and out of his medical
practice, the Board of Trustees of Boundary
Community Hospital is dedicating the building
where Dr. Lucero practiced medicine for the last
fifteen years as the Lucero Medical Services
Building.
The dedication, which includes a commemorative
bronze plaque, will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday,
June 15, directly across the street from the
front of the hospital in the parking lot at
6641Kaniksu Street.
The dedication ceremony will be followed by a
celebration of Ernie Lucero’s life at the
Boundary County Fairgrounds Memorial Hall. Ernie
Lucero’s family invites the community, which
Ernie loved so much, to come and share in the
day of remembrance with them.
What Dr. Lucero was thinking that brought a
smile as he stood in the empty lot in Bonners
Ferry on an overcast day in 1998 is not known,
but it is known that he was thinking, always
thinking — even when he attempted a poker face,
his dark brown eyes would betray that his mind
was whirling.
The breaking of ground by Lucero was not limited
to the physical realm of his office building.
Throughout the years, in his personal life, he
broke new ground.
Raised in the barrios of Los Angeles by his
single mother, he struggled in school. He would
later tell of being at the bottom of his class.
“ I was a very poor studier," he explained. "I
couldn’t stay focused. My high school grades
were very low. My mother’s desire was that I
would finish high school, which I did.”
His mother had a second request; that he would
never get a tattoo.
In those times, and in that area, a tattoo
represented a lifestyle of prison — both an
actual prison, the penitentiary, most often
referred to as the pen, and a lifestyle of
imprisonment to poverty, lack of education,
drugs, and abuse. She wanted a better life for
her son. He fulfilled both her requests.
But not without a struggle.
With an offer waiting from Uncle Sam, after what
seemed like an eternity, Ernie finally graduated
from high school. Enlisting in the United States
Navy offered young Lucero a chance to further
his education. The title assigned by the Navy
was Hospitalman. Not knowing, and not caring
what a hospitalman was, he joined to receive the
free schooling.
Taken completely by surprise, Lucero discovered
he loved studying medicine. The more he learned,
the more intense the desire to learn grew.
His life as a student flipped upside down. No
longer was he at the bottom of his class, but
quite the opposite, he graduated from Navy
Hospital Corpsman School at the top of his
class.
While serving two tours in Vietnam treating
wounded and sick Marines, Lucero rose to the
rank Hospital Corpsman Second Class.
Learning of a new program sweeping the nation in
the mid-60s called the physician assistant
program, Ernie made plans to attend the
University of Washington to earn certification
in the program.
When Lucero graduated from the University of
Washington as a P.A., his class was the second
one in the school’s history to graduate
physician assistants.
After graduating, Ernie Lucero, P.A., accepted a
job with Dr. Edwards in Bonners Ferry, Idaho in
1971.
At that point, Idaho was still in the process of
developing the rules and regulations that
governed physician assistants. He worked with
Dr. Edwards for ten years, treating and caring
for patients often doing the work expected of a
physician.
“He was so good as a physician assistant, we
kept telling him that he should be a doctor,”
enthused one long-time Bonners Ferry resident.
That is exactly what Lucero did.
He promised Bonners Ferry that he would be back
then he packed his luggage and moved to
Pocatello to attend the Idaho State University,
where he gained an undergraduate degree in 1981
with a 3.9 grade point average. From there he
attended the University of Utah School of
Medicine in Salt Lake City.
The final step in his education was
post-graduated training which he completed at
the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake. As soon as he
finished his schooling, he made a beeline for
his home of choice, Bonners Ferry, where he set
up his practice that continued the remainder of
his life.
Dr. Lucero was part of the medical community in
Boundary County for over 33 years.
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| Ernie Lucero
(right) and physician friends dress for
the 2012 County Fair’s theme: Blue Jeans
and Country Dreams. I had to
gather the cowboy boots for most of the
other physicians, but Ernie had his
own—he has a herd of cattle. |
Shortly before his death, he had joined Boundary
Community Clinics in Bonners Ferry to be free of
the cumbersome load of paperwork that
accompanies a private practice. The official
date of joining the Clinic was set for January
1, 2013. He was eager to have more time to
devote to his patients in the practice of
medicine. He passed away unexpectedly in his
home on December 15, 2012.
Boundary Community Hospital Administrator Craig
Johnson expresses deep sympathy to the Lucero
family.
“Dr. Lucero had a passion for medicine that was
remarkable. He was a deeply caring person,
brilliant, hard working, and optimistic. He will
be missed very much," he said. “Enough good
things cannot be said about Ernie Lucero. His
family, our community, our entire hospital
family, and his patients have suffered a great
loss. He was truly one of a kind and will not be
forgotten.”
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