Dec. 9, 2024
By David M. Krakow

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By most standards, Ray Ortiz is something of a Renaissance man. He’s a veteran. He’s a dentist. He’s even a former baseball player, drafted in high school by the Milwaukee Braves.  

But few of his accomplishments elicit as much pride as he takes from his work among, and on behalf of, Tampa Bay area Hispanic residents. 
For his efforts, Ortiz was named the 2023 Hispanic Man of the Year by Tampa Hispanic Heritage, Inc. 

“It was a very humbling experience, an honor,” Ortiz says. “But more importantly, it was an affirmation of what we do in the community.” 
Most of his past 22 years of work has centered on the Krewe of the Knights of Sant’ Yago (KSY) Education Foundation, which provides scholarships to Latino and economically underprivileged students at the University of South Florida, The University of Tampa and Hillsborough Community College. 

Currently, the KSY Foundation is mentoring and providing scholarship assistance to 125 students at the three schools, making the foundation the top scholarship donor for Latino students in the region and the second largest donor to USF’s Latino Scholarship Program (LSP). Since 1994, the KSY Foundation has given more than $809,000 to LSP and other scholarships at USF. 

Ortiz joined the Krew of Sant’ Yago in 1997, the same year it awarded its first USF scholarship. He became the KSY Foundation’s vice president in 2002 and president in 2015. 

“I was very grateful, being that my own career was so dependent on scholarships,” he says, referencing his path from undergraduate to dental and graduate school. “I actually graduated with just $1,500 in debt compared to some colleagues who are graduating with $300,000 or $400,000 (in debt).” 

Ortiz knew he wanted to give back to underprivileged students, especially — but not exclusively — Latinos. He has seen need from one corner of the world to the other. 

Ortiz was born in 1946 in what was then the Panama Canal Zone. His father was in the U.S. Army and the family moved often, residing in Puerto Rico — which Ortiz calls home — Panama, Turkey, Germany and Spain. In the U.S., Ortiz has lived in California, Colorado, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and Florida, where he now lives with his wife, Esther, in South Tampa. 

In South Carolina, he was drafted out of high school by the Milwaukee Braves two years before the team moved to Atlanta, joining their Class AA affiliate in Greenville as a relief pitcher. But he grew bored waiting to play, and a coach encouraged him to pursue higher education.
And so, in 1972, he received his Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry from the University of Puerto Rico and joined the U.S. Air Force. Four years later, he received a Master of Science from the University of Indiana School of Dentistry. He served as an Air Force dentist for 20 years, retiring from the military as a colonel in 1992. Private practice followed, and he has worked as an independent consultant since 2017 seeing veterans for their VA Dental Disability Exams one day a week. In all, he has been practicing dentistry for 52 years. 

He’s also focused on helping others get an education.

 “I feel if Hispanics have the opportunity to pursue higher education, they will do a lot more for the community,” he says, explaining that college graduates have the potential to earn significantly more throughout their lifetimes. Most of the KSY Foundation’s beneficiaries, he adds, are first-generation college students.

“So, in those terms, these individuals can bring millions more back into the community,” he says.

But he says his involvement is as much about his spirit as the dollars raised.

“My wife jokes that she’s an Education Foundation widow,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m always upstairs in my study, trying to find another way I can get more sponsors, more donors. That’s my full-time job. It doesn’t pay me any money but is definitely very rewarding.”

Ortiz fondly recalls providing an endowed scholarship at USF about 15 years ago to a Hispanic man whose physical challenges required use of a wheelchair. When the student graduated, his family came up and hugged Ortiz. 

“It made me more motivated,” Ortiz says. “They told me that if it wasn’t for our help, he would not have been there graduating that day. That told me that it’s worth it, what we’re doing.”