Alberto Verdeja Ibáñez was born in Santiago, Cuba on 30 June 1933. Three months after his birth, his family moved to La Habana where he lived until 1967. He completed his secondary education in La Salle School and subsequently went on to study at the University of La Habana where he obtained a Doctorate in Dental Surgery in 1959. His interest in Maxillo-Facial surgery led him to perform services the Calixto García University Hospital in La Habana where he undertook training under the expertise of reknown maxillo-facial and neuro-surgeons. He also worked at the William Soler pediatric hospital in the areas of Pediatric and Plastic Surgery. In 1967 he moved with his family to Madrid, Spain where he worked at the Hospital of La Paz.
He arrived in Santo Domingo in the year 1968 where he revalidated his Doctorate at the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo and further organized and created the Buco Maxillo-Facial Service at the Robert Read Cabral pediatric hospital.
In his capacity as professor at the Universidad Pedro Henríquez Ureña in 1975 he participated in the organization of the University’s Post Graduate Programme in the field of Buco-Maxillo-Facial Training. The residency programme operated under a tripartite agreement amongst the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic,  CARE Inccorprated and the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña.
He worked as the Coordinator and Chief of this residency service which was carried out at the Dario Contreras Hospital in Santo Domingo, fosussing not only on the technical and scientific features of the programme but also in its formative, human and ethical aspects. The department bears his name in his honour.
He published original techniques in the Cuban Journal of Pediatrics as well as in the Journal of the Argentinian Dental Association such as the “Surgical Technique of Cleft Lip”, “Corrective Technique in the Bilateral Cleft Lip” and “Prosthetic Maxillo-Facial Reconstruction”. He participated in numerous national and international conferences. His technique for correction of the unilateral cleft lip was declared the best at the XI Buco Maxillo Facial Surgery Congress held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early 1992.
He loved sports, especially sailing. He was a member of the Amigos del Mar Association in Cuba. He participated in the organization of the Dominican Federation of Yachting and joined numerous sailing races in Dominican Republic . He also represented the country in various international competitions.
He used his never-ending sense of humor to transmit inspirational thoughts to those around him. He truly loved life and his fellowcitizens and his words were  always educational and encouraging ...as seen in his book “Walking Easier through Life”. Alberto Verdeja died on 28 September 1989 in Santo Domingo at the age of 56, surprising all of those who knew him with his unexpected demise.