Philip Helliwell and Dafna Gladman have brought the GRAPPA (Group of Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis) members the sad tidings of the death of Professor Luis R. Espinoza (Chief of Rheumatology at Louisiana State University in New Orleans) who passed away on 29/3/2020, approaching the age of 77.

Professor Espinoza was pioneer in research on psoriatic arthritis. He was in Leeds with Verna Wright during the 1970's, after the key publication by Moll and Wright on psoriatic arthritis. He was Chief of Rheumatology in Montreal, Canada; after moving to Tampa (Florida) and finally established himself in New Orleans. Whilst he worked in Tampa, at the beginning of the 1980's, he edited a book on psoriatic arthritis together with Frank Vasey, in which he introduced the famous “Vasey and Espinoza”, criteria, based on highly precise clinical observations and which became a clear advance on the Moll and Wright criteria.

Professor Espinoza continued working on psoriatic arthritis in both clinical practice and laboratory settings. He was the founder of GRAPPA and contributed greatly to its studies. One of the most important facets from his exemplary professional and human track record was his friendship and collaboration with rheumatologists from all over the world and, as a Peruvian, his special dedication to Latin American rheumatologists. He was a mentor to a whole generation of young Latin American GRAPPA rheumatologists whom he encouraged and supported to extend knowledge of rheumatology and psoriatic arthritis in Latin America. He also shared and enriched the idea our small group of GRAPPA member rheumatologists had, among them the outstanding Dr. JL Fernández Sueiro, of creating a Spanish group specifically dedicated to research in psoriatic arthritis.

He was always a friendly, receptive and collaborative person, who applauded effort and peoples’ career paths. His invitation to participate as a speaker at the Peruvian Rheumatology Congress, celebrated in Cuzco in 2010, we shall always remember as the opportunity it afforded us to share his friendship and expertise in such a marvellous setting.

Professor Espinoza was Chief Editor in Clinical Rheumatology (Springer) from 2013 to 2018, and managed to substantially raise the quality of the published articles and their impact factor. He was also the promoter and chairman of PANLAR in 2009, and recently, and received countless accolades and awards for his distinguished career from the most prestigious medical associations in USA and Latin America.

Apart from his dedication to psoriatic arthritis, and to systemic and autoinflammatory diseases his brilliant and constant contribution to knowledge on the relationship between infections and rheumatic diseases should be highlighted. This has been reflected in his many different publications and in a magnificent editorial production (Luis R Espinoza, Editor. Infections and the Rheumatic Diseases, Springer Nature, 2019). In his own words, the aim of the book is to “underline the relevance and importance of infectious agents in the aetiology and pathogenesis of musculoskeletal diseases, and their role in the natural course, disease expression, progression and clinical response to conventional and biological therapies”. A brilliant and timely legacy for the times in which we live. May he rest in peace.