Obituary: Julio C. de Arteaga

Julio C. de Arteaga, M.D. “Doc” passed away peacefully Wednesday, June 19, 2024 in his Brookfield, Wisconsin home after several months of home hospice care at the end stages of dementia. He was 95 years old. 

Julio de Arteaga was born in New York City, November 23, 1928 to parents Julio de Arteaga and Irma de Arteaga Ortiz. He grew up bilingual in Spanish and English balancing his Puerto Rican roots and New York neighborhood. In 1947 he graduated high school from Colegio San Jose, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. Wanting to be a doctor from a young age, he did his premed studies at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. He completed his medical degree at the University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain. While living in Europe, Julio met and married his first wife, Monika Brigitta de Arteaga Klose. Together they raised seven children while living in Spain, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin.

Julio served the Brillion community as the only physician in town from 1965 until he sold his practice and clinic to Bellin Health in 1994. In addition to his day-to-day clinic work, he responded to the medical needs of workers in Brillion industries, inmates at the prison in Green Bay, teens in high school sports, Mexican migrant workers and police emergencies. His family also benefited from having “a doctor in the house.”

After the death of his beloved Monika, he met and married Bonnie (Bieri) Carriveau on February 16, 1991, and she took his name. 

Julio loved to travel.  He and Bonnie adventured together to many places both familiar and new, especially to Spain where to his death, he maintained friendships he had made as a student in the 1950s. And Bonnie in return introduced him to the arts community in NE Wisconsin.  Julio also loved to plant spring bulbs in the fall, blow snow in the winter, cut the lawn in the spring, vacation in Wild Rose, or Washington Island in the summer, and eat cheese and cook Caribbean food year-round. 

Julio is survived by his wife, Bonnie; his children and their spouses:  Carlos “Tom” (Linda) de Arteaga, Margarita (Amaury) Hernandez, Pedro “Peter” de Arteaga (Shelia St Thomas), Monika de Arteaga (Mark Lyneis), Joseph “Jose” de Arteaga (Kenn Hopkins), Esteban de Arteaga; and Julio’s wife, daughter-in-law: Holly de Arteaga. “Doctor Grandpa” will also be sadly missed by his surviving grandchildren: Nicholas de Arteaga, Maria de Arteaga (Kent Costello), Miguel Hernández, Maya St. Sebastian, Thomas Lyneis (Bryanna Hathaway), Megan (Gibson Hatch) Lyneis, and John “Jack” Lyneis; and great grandchild, Kilian Costello.  There was always room in Julio’s open arms for one more, and along with his own children, he embraced Bonnie’s children; Gregory Carriveau, Bridget (Andrew) Buckman, and Katrina (Bradley) Fronberry. “Papa Julio” will be lovingly remembered by Bonnie’s grandchildren:  Zoe Carriveau, Emma Carriveau, Finnigan Buckman, Madeline Buckman, Ruby Fronberry, William Fronberry, and Gloria Fronberry.  He is further survived by one sister-in-law: Dorle Huber; one brother-in-law: Father Georg Klose; two sisters-in-law and one brother-in-law: Rebecca Bieri and Ed (Lisa) Bieri; and other relatives.

Julio was preceded in death by his parents; his first wife, Monika; one son, his namesake, Julio de Arteaga; a sister, Ivette Morgan (nee de Arteaga); grandchildren: Stacy Zahorik and Erika Lyneis; father-in-law and mother-in-law: Frederick and Margaretha (Montag) Klose; father-in-law and mother-in-law:  Elmer and Joey (Thompson) Bieri; and in-laws: Steffi Huber, Barbara Savege, Maria Essigman, Rudolf Klose, and Norbert Klose.  

Funeral Arrangements are being made through Pielhop Wieting Funeral Home in Brillion, Wisconsin, a city he served as a family physician for more than 40 years. 

Funeral Service will be held at 3:00 p.m. at the Pielhop Wieting Funeral Home in Brillion on Sunday, June 30, 2024.  Officiating at the Service will be Deacon Greg Van Thiel.

The family will greet relatives and friends on Sunday afternoon before the service at the funeral home from 12:00 p.m. (NOON) until the time of the service. Graveside prayers and interment will be in Holy Family Catholic Church Cemetery, Brillion.

Friends wishing to pay tribute in the form of a donation to a cause Julio favored, see Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org or The Mary House of Hospitality www.themaryhouse.org  

The family wishes to gratefully acknowledge the compassionate, spiritual, and professional palliative hospice care provided to Julio by his care team at Aurora Home Health. We also want to thank Julio’s loving caregiver, CherRenae Blakes, who for the last year and a half cared for him on a daily basis to the end.