José Ramón Gurruchaga Ezama was born on March 29, 1931 in Spain. His parents, of Basque origin, taught him to live under the loving look of God and through the uprightness of one’s work. As an adolescent he joined the Salesian seminary in Barakaldo, close to Bilbao.
After his religious profession he asked to be sent as a missionary “where I can be of help and where it is needed”. In 1951 he went as a missionary to Peru and on January 2nd 1952, at Titicaca Lake “I became a cholo” (Peruvian), as he loved to recall. He served in the communities of Puno and Arequipa and in 1955 he was sent to Rome to complete his studies. He was ordained a priest on February 11th, 1961.
For nine years he was the formator of Salesian seminarians in Chosica - Lima, then he was given the task of Rector of the Salesian Polytechnic on Lima and subsequently he was appointed Parish Priest in Magdalena del Mar.
He was Provincial in Mexico and Peru. After years of intense work, on February 28th, 1987, he was appointed Bishop of Huaraz – Ancash; in his diocese he implemented important projects to promote employment, but above all he was for all the “Father Bishop”, “because – as he used to say – paternity is the reason for existence of the bishop”.
The “Father Bishop” could not be indifferent to the fratricidal war of subversion, and after having suffered the plague of terrorism of Sendero Luminoso and two cerebral infarctions, he was transferred to Lima, where the Pope had created the Diocese of Lurín, of which he was the first bishop, being appointed on January 25th, 1997.
Yesterday, April 11th, 2017, the “Father Bishop” went to the house of the Father.
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/3052-peru-goodbye-to-msgr-jose-ramon-gurruchaga-ezama-sdb#sigProId5fd48039f4