Medical building dedicated to Dr. Lucero
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| Boundary Community Hospital CEO Craig Johnson dedicates the Lucero Medical Services Building in honor of the late Dr. Ernie Lucero. |
"Dr.
Lucero, or Ernie as he always corrected me, was
a remarkable man," said Boundary Community
Hospital CEO Craig Johnson in bestowing the
facility's new name. "As a physician assistant
and then a physician, he cared for many of us in
the community over his 33 years of service in
Bonners Ferry. Shortly after his passing,
Darrell Kerby said, 'Ernie did not have any
patients, but he did have many friends he cared
for.'"The story of how Dr. Lucero came to serve his friends here is as amazing as the man himself.
Born in the barrios of Los Angeles in 1947, he was a lackluster student with no real direction in life, but he fulfilled his mother's request and graduated high school. He found the path his life would take after enlisting in the U.S. Navy as a corpsman, and he served two tours in Vietnam, treated ill and injured Marines.
After his honorable discharge, he enrolled in the physician's assistant program at the University of Washington, where he graduated as a PA from the second class in the school's history, and in 1967. He accepted a job offer from Dr. Edwards and came to Bonners Ferry, working with patients for ten years before returning to school, first at the Idaho State University, then at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he graduated summa cum laude with a doctorate in medicine.
He then returned to Bonners Ferry, where he practiced until his untimely death on December 15, 2012, the last 15 years in the building that now bears his name.
Just inside the vestibule is a plaque with a picture of Dr. Lucero as most fondly remember him, dressed in a white lab coat, his forthright smile beaming. On it, you can read more about a remarkable man who overcame long odds to become a leader in the Boundary County medical community.