56 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com Coastal Bend Community THE SAD NEWSspread quickly through- out one Corpus Christi community after another, first the surfers, young and old, and the medical community, soon followed by fans of Costa Sur restaurant and residents throughout North Padre Island, and finally his patients—the news that Dr. Luis “Lucho” Mackrizz, an internist in practice in Corpus Christi for almost 20 years, had suffered a broken neck while surfing at J.P. Luby Surf Park on Padre Island, and had died after being in a coma for three days. Lucho left this world on Sunday, June 17th, his 64th birthday and Father’s Day, after the accident that occurred early Thursday morning. Dr. Mackrizz grew up in Lima, Peru, and was educated at the city’s public university. He emigrated to the United States to practice medicine at the Salem, Virginia, Medical Center before moving to Corpus Christi with his young family in 1999. His sons, Nick and Alonso, excelled as surfers and successfully pursued their own professional careers along with their family business, Costa Sur Wok & Ceviche Bar on North Padre. Dozens of surfers along with friends, patients and employees paid tribute to Lucho in a burial at sea ceremony at Bob Hall Pier on Saturday, June 23rd. HAPPY B-DAY WHATABURGER! HARMON DOBSON was a pilot working as a diamond courier when he moved from Arkansas to Cor- pus Christi in 1950 to pursue wildcat- ting opportunities in the oil field, but his deals went bust and he found himself looking for something else. Wasting no time, in June 1950 he was granted the Whataburger trademark, and on August 8, 1950, he opened his first hamburger shack on Ayers St. across from Del Mar College—and it was an instant hit. Dobson’s plan was to serve up the big- gest, best burger anywhere—one that you needed two hands to hold. His phi- losophy was that folks would pay a little more (25¢ to start that inflated to 35¢ within weeks) for a better hamburger— and he was right. Sadly, Harmon was killed in a plane crash in 1967, but his widow, Grace, led the company through its historic period of growth in the 70’s. Today Whataburger is an official Texas Treasure, operating over 800 restaurants in Texas, as far west as Arizona, and as far east as Jacksonville, Florida—and is still family owned. Over the years, one competition after another found Whata- burger to be the best burger in America! Above: The first Whataburger was located on Ayers across from Del Mar College. Below: Harmon Dobson