In Memory of Arcelia Quiles de Náter (1933 - 2021)

The Board of Directors of the Puerto Rican League Against Cancer and its Oncology Hospital Dr. Isaac Gonzalez Martinez, join all its employees in expressing our condolences to the family of Doña Celia Náter. Her beginnings in our hospital institution, dates back to the mid 40's of the twentieth century, at the time that the Oncology Hospital of La Liga Puertorriqueña was located at Calle del Parque # 226. At a very early age he began to work in our modest hospital, while he was studying Pedagogy, a profession he never practiced. She dedicated herself to compile the data of the cancer disease, a task assigned by Dr. Isaac Gonzalez himself, continuing the trajectory of the distinguished doctor. Doña Celia stood out for her dexterity and speed with the clippers, managing to write 125 words per minute. Tempering herself with the technological movements of the time, she obtained a master's degree in Health Information Management, originally known as Medical Record.

In January 1951, the Oncology Hospital of the Puerto Rican League Against Cancer was accredited by the American College of Surgeons, recognizing it as one of the 12 cancer hospitals in the Western Hemisphere. Doña Celia founded the Cancer Registry exactly in January 1952. The "Comprehensive Community Cancer Hospital" certification placed us among the first in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

Dr. Isaac González passed away in 1954, leaving behind his visionary sense, for he saw in the figure of Doña Celia that the task assigned to her would leave great contributions for the Island. Mrs. Náter, as founder and director of the Cancer Registry Department, was honored in 1979, where she had as her guest the famous Negroid poetry declaimer, Juan Boria. During Hospital Week, May 12-18, 1985, she received the distinction of Administrative Chief of the Year.

Doña Celia retired from the institution in 1998 and continued for 2 additional years as a consultant, but not before managing the sponsorship with the pharmaceutical company Lilly del Caribe, for the acquisition of computers to temper the technological movements. She was a person ahead of her time like Dr. Isaac Gonzalez Martinez. What a privilege to have had her. Now she must be working on new ideas with the Lord. FAREWELL.