Candido Antonio Menendez  was born on December 1,  1931 in Havana, Cuba and passed on June 28, 2022 in Clermont, Fla.  He was 90 years old.  Candido ("Pipo" to his family) was an intelligent but simple man with high principles who loved his family and made their well being his life-long focus.   At the age of 16, he was attending a private high school "Redencion" and was  poised to go to college on scholarship to study Accounting when his father died tragically.  Candido was forced to drop plans for school and help raise his brother and sister.   As a young man in the 1950's, Candido was a professional photographer and managed a photography studio.  Then tragedy struck again as Castro took over Cuba and the communists removed most free enterprise.  Within a couple of short years the photography business was forced to close.  After the Cuban revolution ended, for four years Candido was forced into manual labor in "work camps" due to his anti-communist political views.  Later,  Candido struggled under construction for many years and he and his wife were forced to trade clothing for food and often passed on their ration of meat so their children could have it.   In 1985  he was able to flee communist Cuba with his wife and 12 year old daughter- Janet (two years later to be joined by his 26 year old son, Tony).  Candido was already 53 years old so it was not easy settling into a new country not knowing a word of English as a middle aged worker.  However,  Candido prevailed and through hard work and determination he managed to finish raising his daughter and supported his family of four as they became established in the United States, settling in Ft. Lauderdale where he and his wife lived for 16 years.  Candido eventually moved with his wife to live with his daughter, Janet Marshall,  son in law Chuck Marshall, and their two children in Clermont, Fla.  Always with a high regard for this country and the freedom it offered, Candido's son remembers his father saying (when still in Cuba) that all he wanted was to settle in the United States and have a nice cold Coca Cola - a drink that had been missing in Cuba for many years due to Communist rule.  Simple ambitions for a simple man who always exhibited great humility,  an absence of pretense,  intelligent conversation, quick wit,  and great love and care for his family.  Pipo will be greatly missed.