This year, we want to take a moment to share with heavy hearts the news of Dr. Mortel’s passing earlier this year. Dr. Rodrigue Mortel, founder and president of the Mortel High Hopes for Haiti Foundation, passed away on Friday, April 22, 2022. To commemorate his life, we would like to share a bit about his life and accomplishments.
Dr. Mortel was born December 3, 1933, in St. Marc, Haiti. After graduating from medical school in Haiti, Dr. Mortel received training in obstetrics and gynecology and in gynecologic oncology. He spent 30 years at the Penn State College of Medicine and became the first black foreign educated doctor to chair a U.S. medical school Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 1995, he became Associate Dean and Founding Director of the Penn State University Cancer Center.
Dr. Mortel was ordained a permanent deacon for the Catholic Church in 2001. He served as the Director of the Missions Office for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and deacon at St. Joan of Arc parish in Hershey and his hometown parish in St. Marc, Haiti. In 1997, he created the Mortel Family Charitable Foundation, now the Mortel High Hopes for Haiti Foundation, to serve the poorest of the poor in Haiti. The Mortel HHH Foundation has established three schools in St. Marc and sponsors adult education programs in literacy, aqua agriculture, poultry, and general farming, serving more than 1,500 children and adults. Upon his passing, his daughter, Denise Mortel Mitchell, assumed the role of president of the foundation.
Dr. Mortel was a great light to all who knew him and to those who didn’t whose lives he touched through his medical, religious, and charitable work. Dr. Mortel recognized education as the pivotal step that allowed him to have such an amazing life. His legacy lives on in the efforts of the Mortel HHH Foundation in Haiti to give children and adults that same opportunity to rise up through the pursuit of knowledge.
Thank you, Dr. Mortel, for your service and your strength. You will be missed.
Read more about Dr. Mortel’s life and stories from those blessed to have known him here.
To donate to the 11 Days in Haiti Campaign, click here.