Helio Gelli Pereira. 23 September 1918 — 16 August 1994

Abstract

Dr Helio Pereira, who was known internationally for his work on the viruses of vertebrates, died on 16 August 1994 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was born on 23 September 1918 in the small town of Petropolis in the state of Rio de Janeiro, where his father Raul Pereira Geronymo had been born. His grandparents were Portuguese and came from the Azores islands to set up a modest grocery business in Petropolis. His mother's family originated from Italy. His maternal grandfather had earned his living from eel fishing but in 1893 came to Brazil and started a cabinet-making business, which grew into a prosperous furniture factory and a chain of furniture shops run by members of the family. Helio lived for the first five years of his life in Petropolis, the site of the Imperial summer palace, which was then a small summer mountain resort near Rio de Janeiro with a permanent population largely of German, Italian and Portuguese descent. Of that period he remembered mainly the life in his mother's family. This centred on the patriarchal figure of his grandfather and comprised a close-knit family of twelve sons and daughters and their wives, husbands and children. The family followed Italian customs to a large extent but these were influenced by the more easy-going Brazilian way of life, and so the general atmosphere was light-hearted and cheerful.