Dr. Victor L. Slater

Dr. Victor L. Slater, Psychiatrist, Mandolinist, 90 years young, passed away peacefully Friday night, Jan 15, 2016. With a gentle Fort Pierce breeze he filled his sails and headed due North to heaven. Vic was born in Geneva, Ohio, attended Michigan State, Wayne State, University of Texas and Duke Universities. His passions included Psychiatry, tennis, fishing, sailing, playing the mandolin, and the love of his life, Alicia. They headed south, spending 58 wonderful years together in Miami, and the Panama Canal Zone, finally settling in the sunshine state, his beloved Fort Pierce, Florida in 1991. He was Chief of Psychiatry at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone from 1966 to 1976, Head of Psychiatry at the VA Hospital in Miami and professor on the faculty at the University of Miami school of Medicine, eventually practicing at New Horizons Mental Health Center in Fort Pierce.
For 25 years, his sailboat the “Romance” and fishing skiff the “Alicia” could be seen chasing fish in the shallows and the inlet and the waters off Florida’s treasure coast. He sailed the Galapagos Islands, haunted late night Flamenco bars in Spain, navigated the Islands of Greece, blue eyes sparkling in the Alps of Switzerland, traversed the Panama Canal, all the while conducting his life with a magical, delicate balance of work and play and raising a strong family.
He is survived and will be deeply missed by his wife Alicia, son James in Nashville, Tennessee, son Christian and wife Wendy in Orlando, daughter Angelita and husband Richard in Austin, Texas and grand children Elliot, Ariana, Vincent, and Willem. He adored Archie’s Seabreeze, Pineapple Joe’s, his blue PT Cruiser, Donut Circus, “Shit on a Shingle” at Dave’s Diner, Buckshot Bay on the Hard, and all the seaworthy and salty characters that inhabit the coast of St. Lucie County and North Hutchinson Island. He loved writing handwritten letters, the Orange Peel Gazette, Little Jim’s Bait and Tackle, and the magic of Key West. And music, making his mandolin sing with Los Perdidos, Xavier and Alicia was his life blood, Bluegrass and especially Spanish songs from around the world seduced and inspired him.
We’ll miss our “Father Like No Other”… I looked up today and saw the clouds form a mandolin in the blue sky off the coast, and smiled, we’ll see you around Dad. Love and more, Now and Forever…Adios…Your Loving Family…His sendoff at sea and celebration of life will be at a later date.