The Life of Lauro F. Cavazos

Editor’s Observe: The Caprock Chronicles are edited by Jack Becker, As we speak’s column is extra of a private remembrance by Scott Sosebee than a proper essay. Sosebee knew Cavazos personally and likewise admired him as a real “Texas Trailblazer.” Cavazos handed away on March 15 at his dwelling in Harmony, MA.

Probably the most pervasive nationwide mantra inside the US is that our nation permits anybody to turn out to be no matter they need, rise to the heights of wealth, prominence, status, or maybe all three by means of arduous work and perseverance.

Such is the case with Lauro F. Cavazos Jr. a son of a laborer on the legendary King Ranch to be the President of a serious Texas college after which the primary Latino to ever serve in a Presidential cupboard.

Cavazos was born on the King Ranch in South Texas in January 1927. His preliminary training got here at a faculty for Latino college students on the ranch, however a change got here when his mother and father moved to close by Kingsville expressly for the aim of constructing certain their kids obtained a correct training.

A Texas Tech trailblazer: Former College President, Cupboard Secretary Lauro Cavazos dies at 95

Cavazos’ mom, Tomasa Quintanilla Cavazos, deliberately enrolled her 5 school-age kids within the “White” college as a substitute of the segregated “Mexican” campus. When she was advised that she “couldn’t do this,” she sat within the principal’s workplace till he relented. Her kids grew to become the primary college students of Mexican descent on the previously segregated college. It will not be the primary barrier that Lauro Cavazos breached.

After graduating highschool Cavazos joined the Military. After his hitch ended he returned to Kingsville and advised his father that he supposed to turn out to be a business fisherman.

It simply so occurred that the 2 had been driving previous the campus of Texas A&I Faculty (now Texas A&M-Kingsville) when he made the revelation. His father gave him a stern look, pointed on the faculty, and stated, “Tomorrow morning you’ll enroll there.”  

Chastened, the younger Cavazos did so. He grew to become a journalism main at A&I, however whereas there he found that he cherished science. He transferred to Texas Tech College, whose Lubbock campus was about as far-off from Kingsville as he may get and nonetheless be within the Lone Star State. He graduated from Texas Tech in 1949 with a level in zoology after which earned an MS there in cytology.

He subsequent traveled to Ames, Iowa the place he earned a Ph.D. in physiology from Iowa State College in 1954. That very same yr he married Peggy Murdock, a Littlefield native. The couple had ten kids.

The younger couple moved to Richmond, Virginia the place Cavazos taught physiology and anatomy on the Medical Faculty of Virginia (now a part of Virginia Commonwealth College). He was there for 9 years earlier than he took a place on the Tufts College Faculty of Medication in Boston, the place they loved residing. He turn out to be the Dean of the medical college in 1975 and stay in that place till 1980, when he and Peggy determined to “come dwelling.”

Lauro F. Cavazos took over as President of Texas Tech College in 1980, changing into the primary Hispanic president of Texas Tech and the primary graduate of the college to take the workplace. Texas Tech pursued Cavazos not simply due to his connection to the college, however for his want to hunt out extra minority college students and to advertise and strengthen the Texas Tech Medical Faculty, based in 1969.

Cavazos got here to Texas Tech throughout an essential transition interval. Texas Tech, like many establishments of upper studying within the Nineteen Seventies, was rising in pupil inhabitants, however Tech wished to boost its educational status in addition to improve its pupil enrollment, particularly in underrepresented teams.

Cavazos would function TTU’s president till 1988 and he would accomplish most of these objectives. The varsity’s inhabitants grew to over 25,000, its proportion of minority college students additionally elevated, and the medical — in addition to legislation — colleges’ enrollment and status enhanced as nicely.

His tenure was not with out controversy; he clashed with the school over his concepts about tenure reform, a lot in order that he obtained a “no confidence” vote from the Tech College Senate in 1984.

Lauro Cavazos was not completed with “firsts.” When President Ronald Reagan’s controversial Secretary of Schooling William F. Bennett resigned in 1988, the President made Lauro F. Cavazos an unlikely appointee to the cupboard place.  

The Senate simply confirmed him and Lauro F. Cavazos, Jr. grew to become the primary Latino Secretary of Schooling and the primary Latino cupboard member in U.S. historical past. After George H.W. Bush received the 1988 election he stored Cavazos on as Secretary of Schooling. Cavazos’ important focus throughout his tenure was to extend instructional alternatives for minority college students.

He would serve till he resigned in 1990, whereupon he returned to Tufts to tackle the function of professor as soon as once more.

Lauro Fred Cavazos Jr. died peacefully in his sleep at his Harmony, Massachusetts, dwelling on March 15, 2022. His spouse of 67 years was at his facet.

If you want to study extra about Cavazos’ life, I urge you to learn “A Kineños’ Journey: On Household, Studying, and Public Service” by Lauro Cavazos and Gene B. Preuss. It’s out there by way of Amazon or Texas Tech College Press.