A Lifelong Love of Learning

As one of four children in a military family, Dr. Homero Garza ’71 changed communities countless times throughout his youth.

But one thing that remained constant, he says, was his parents’ love for learning. “My family believed in the habit of lifelong learning and reading. They felt an education could fundamentally change the trajectory of a family,” Garza says of his parents, Remedios L. Garza and Alicia U. Garza. “That vision kept me going and ultimately led me to Trinity University.”

Garza served as Trinity’s student body president, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1971, and then shone as a medical student at Harvard, where he attained his M.D. and M.P.H. “Even though I have two degrees from Harvard, I still value that one degree from Trinity because I think that’s really the bedrock, the foundation upon which the other ones were based,” he says.

That Trinity foundation—particularly the close, personal faculty relationships Garza enjoyed with professors of all stripes—would serve him well throughout a nearly 50-year career in gastroenterology, where Garza has been beloved by patients across San Antonio and other parts of Texas, many of whom came from marginalized communities. “The professors really kept me on campus during my time at Trinity,” Garza says. “They believed in me. And several of my professors actually became my patients later in life.”

Garza also became a veteran like his father and retired from the U.S. Army and Army Reserves as a colonel. He also attributes his success and perseverance to a lifelong commitment to faith and family values. 

Now in retirement, Garza remains connected to the at-large Trinity community, especially to his sister, Maria Groussman, who graduated from Trinity in 1974 (and also graduated from Harvard). His daughter, Nicole ’07, M’10, M’17, and her brother, Abe ’13, also attended Trinity. Garza says he has donated to Trinity at the senior associates level ($2,500) for at least 45 years now and, along with his wife, Sandee Marion, recently endowed a scholarship in the name of his parents. This scholarship, Garza says, is aimed at helping local kids from Bexar County make it to Trinity.

“I’m hoping that the students who accept this scholarship will want to not just personally benefit from the scholarship, but they will also feel that there’s something bigger than themselves that they can contribute to: the community.”