Biographical Information

Lawrence Lee Espey was born in the small farm-town of Mercedes, Texas, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during September of 1935. Shortly after that, his family moved to San Benito, Texas, where he completed grades 1-12 and graduated from San Benito High School. In 1958, he completed a B.A. Degree in Zoology at The University of Texas, Austin. He paid his own way through college by working as a lineman on a power & light construction crew for 3½ months each summer. After that, he worked for a year as a Research Assistant at the University of Texas Dental Branch in Houston. Subsequently, he returned to The University of Texas, where he completed an M.A. Degree in Zoology in 1961. That same year, he began doctoral studies in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida State University in Tallahassee. After completion of his Ph.D. Degree in the area of Physiology in 1964, he spent 2 years as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Institutes of Health while working in the Department of Physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

In 1966, Professor Espey turned down an opportunity to remain on the Faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School and returned to Texas where he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Trinity University in San Antonio. In 1970, he became an Associate Professor at Trinity University, and he was promoted to the rank of Professor in 1974. While he enjoyed teaching a wide variety of classes in Biology and in Environmental Studies during his 42 years at this Institution, he also found the time to continue his doctoral research on the physiology of ovulation. During the past decade, these endocrinological studies have turned more toward molecular work—with the aim of detecting ovarian gene expression that is unique to the ovulatory process.

Professor Espey is married to Doina Ionescu Espey, who is of Romanian heritage. They have a son, Alexandru Woods Espey.who recently married Gigi Greebon. In addition, Professor Espey has three children by a previous marriage—Richard, Elaine, and Annette. Richard and Elaine are currently physicians in Dallas, Texas, and Annette has resigned from the position of Managing Director for Customer Relations at the Headquarters of American Airlines in order to become a homemaker and a fulltime mother. Annette and Mark Dickerson have two children, Haley and Jack. (Jack looks better when he has all his teeth.) Richard and Julie also have two children, Kaitlin and Brian, who recently (August, 2009) flew each by themselves from Dallas to San Antonio for visits. Among other things, they caught their first fish while staying in San Antonio. Professor Espey spends as much time as possible with these grandchildren.

For further biographical information, you can go to a cover article that appeared in a Trinity Magazine in the spring of 2004. See pages one, two, three, four, five, and six.

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