Jose Ramon Alvarez Pereira was born in Mariel, Cuba in 1929. After completing the tenth grade, Alvarez travelled to the United States to continue his education, learn English, and earn a degree in mechanical engineering. He attended schools in Georgia and North Carolina before transferring to Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) in June 1948. Alvarez earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from A.P.I. in 1950 and returned to Cuba where he worked at a rayon plant powerhouse and later at ESSO oil refinery in Havana. In 1965, Alvarez fled Cuba and relocated to Spain where he worked for New Jersey-based Lummus Engineering followed by Brown and Root, a company based in Houston, Texas. During this time Alvarez validated his American Resident Visa by travelling to the United States briefly. Then in 1969, he began work as a project engineer for W. R. Grace and Co. in Baltimore, Maryland and became a U.S. citizen in 1974. At that time Alvarez was head of the engineering and maintenance departments, a position he held until his retirement in 2002 following thirty-three years of service