Text Box:  DR. JOE AND ROSE MARIE MENDOZA Having been members since 1972, Dr. Joe and Rose Marie Mendoza have definitely become familiar faces around St. Matthew parish. The doctor is a Fourth Degree Knight with the Knights of Columbus and Rose Marie is active as a Eucharistic minister, both at Mass and for the homebound, and a lector. Joe attended the first Men’s and Rose Marie the first Women’s retreats when the ACTS movement initially came to El Paso. With the last name of Mendoza, one might assume that one or both hail from the border region. However, Joe was born in Chanute, Kansas and grew up in nearby, Coffeyville, while Rose Marie (Servin) was born and raised just to the south in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. By chance, both were baptized by the same priest in St. Patrick Catholic Church in Coffeyville. Ironically, neither was aware of this until they tied the knot at St. John’s in Bartlesville in 1960. The couple celebrated their 61st anniversary on November 26th of this year. Two daughters, Bernadette and Monica, were born while Joe was attending Coffeyville Junior College. Following that, he made the decision to become a doctor and began his medical studies at the University of Tulsa. From there, a move took the family to Oklahoma City where Joe attended the University Of Oklahoma School Of Medicine. It was here that their third, daughter, Angela was born. From there Joe would move to the University of Missouri in Kansas City where he did his internship at Kansas City General Hospital. In 1972 the couple made their final move to El Paso where Joe completed his residency at R. E. Thomason hospital, after which he set up his own practice specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Their fifth daughter, Rebecca, is the only El Paso native. Today of the five girls, Bernadette, Monica and Hillary still reside in the city, while Angela lives in New Orleans and Rebecca in Phoenix. The couple settled on the Westside, first in Coronado and then in the Upper Valley. In 1976 they selected St. Matthew as their Text Box: church home. “When we moved here, Sunset wasn’t even a through street – it just curved on and became a continuation of Vista del Monte”, Rose Marie reminisces. “The valley was all beautiful farmland so we have seen a lot of changes.” Currently, Rose Marie is extremely involved with The Opportunity Center, a shelter for homeless men on Myrtle Street in downtown El Paso. “At the time Joe was on the Board of Thomason Hospital, and by chance, I met Vicki de Benidetto at a cocktail party and found out that she was very involved with the Opportunity Center. I mentioned my interest in working with the homeless and Vicki suggested I attend a meeting of the Center’s “Food Share Committee”. “This was approximately 1995, and it was through this ministry I came to know Meta and Ralph Mossman., a couple who had made it their mission to provide at least one hot meal for the homeless. At this point, there were no kitchen facilities so meals were heated in a microwave and served in the large room on the upper floor where the men slept at night.” “Working with the Mossman’s, we were eventually able to raise funds for a kitchen with stoves, steam tables, freezers, etc. Currently there are seven members of the food share committee, and as one, I provide meals for an average of 120 men on the second Friday evening each month.” Rose Marie is very interested in getting volunteers from St. Matthew who would be willing to make sandwiches for lunches one day a Text Box: Dr. Joe and Rose Mendoza

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Volume 2 issue  Fall 2011

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