Dr Jose Rivera

[Magda Hassan]

Title: SUMMARY OF KNOWN FACTS REGARDING JOSE RIVERA

SUMMARY OF KNOWN FACTS REGARDING JOSE RIVERA
by Dave Robertson

Jose A.Rivera was a naturalized citizen, born in either Lima, Peru, or San Juan, Puerto Rico (both birth places given in U.S. government documents, as are several different birth dates, ranging from February 6, 1905-1911. He died in 1989.). He was in the US. Army, 1943-1957 and US. Army Reserves, until 1965, Military Service Number: 05 13 618; served in the European Theater of War, 1943-1946; was stationed at Fort Detrick, Maryland, US. Army Chemical Corps, had SECRET Clearance, worked under Dr. Carl Lamanna, bacteriologist, 1947-1948; Stationed in Japan and Korea, 1950-1954; Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, 1954-1957; Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1959-1961; Naval Biological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA, had TOP SECRET classification work under Dr. Carl Lamanna again, 1959-1961. National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Science Administrator, 1961-1973 (?) uncertain of exact retirement date here.

Adele Edisen first met him in April of 1963 while attending scientific meetings in Atlantic City, New Jersey (Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology - FASEB). She was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness - NIH at that time. Rivera was an administrator in the same Institute as a member of the Section on Training Grants and Awards. He had previously informed Dr. Sidney Harris, Chairman of the Department of Physiology, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, that Adele Edisen had been awarded the fellowship to work in the department.

*Birth dates: February 6, 1905-1912 (range).
*US. Army: 1943-1957; Army Reserve unti1 1965. Military Service Number: 05 13 618.
*European Theater of War: 1943-1946.
*Stationed at Fort Detrick, Maryland, U.S. Army Chemical Corps, had SECRET Clearance, worked under Dr. Carl Lamanna, bacteriologist: 1947-1948.
*Stationed in Japan and Korea: 1950-1954.
*Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas: 1954-1957.
*Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana: 1959-1961.
*Naval Biological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California,
had TOP SECRET classification working under Dr. Carl Lamanna again: 1959-1961.
*National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Science Administrator: 1961-1973 (?) uncertain of exact retirement date here.
*Social Security Number 214-28-5673.

He was a naturalized citizen. Claimed two birth places -Lima, Peru, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Graduated Lima High School in 1925. Graduated St. John's University Brooklyn, New York with B.S. degree in 1934.
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In 1989, Maryland newspapers published the obituary of "Dr. Jose Albert Rivera, pathologist, analyst, 78," which read:

Dr. Jose Albert Rivera, 78, a retired Army pathologist and research analyst at NIH, died of pancreatic cancer, Wednesday, Aug. 16, at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He lived in Kensington, Maryland [at 3913 Dunnel Lane]. Dr. Rivera retired in 1973 from a second career as a medical research analyst at the Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, one of the NIH, where he worked after retiring from the Army in 1965. Born in Lima, Peru, Dr. Rivera studied medicine at the University of San Marcos. He moved to the United States to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, earning his undergraduate degree there. He earned his doctoral degree from Georgetown University in 1939 and interned at Providence Hospital.
In 1942, he volunteered for the Army and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the medical corps. He was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital and later assigned to Halloran General Army Hospital in New York.
In 1944, while acting as chief of pathology at Halloran, he was promoted to captain and went on a series of assignments in Italy and France and at the 198th General Army Hospital in Berlin.
During the Korean War he served in the 1273rd Medical Field Unit of the 406th Medical General Laboratory and received a battlefield promotion to major. After the war, he was chief of laboratory service and pathology at the U.S. Army Hospital in Tokyo.
In 1958, he was assigned to the Reserve Training Center in Washington D.C., where he remained until his retirement in 1965.
Dr. Rivera was active in many civic organizations and charities. His favorites were the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the Reserve Officers Association of the United States and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States....
Dr. Rivera is survived by two daughters, Linda Rivera-King of Abington, Pennsylvania, and Natalie Rivera Frederick of San Ramon, California, and three grandchildren. His wife, Anne J. Rivera, to whom he was married for 52 years, died in 1988. Services were held at Fort Myer Chapel, with burial at Arlington National Cemetery."

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This past summer I [Adele Edisen] learned that a Military Personnel document (from a government file - NPRC list) has stated that Rivera was present at the JFK autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital at Bethesda. William B. Pitzer service number 416681 was also on this list.