Dr. Roger Martinez and Roy Lopez
Dr. Roger Martinez, who received his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M in 1985, has advice for those seeking an advanced education: The sooner you get it done, the better. At StoryCorps, Martinez talks with longtime friend Roy Edward Lopez about what's important in life.
- [Dr. Martinez] So my goal when I get here; I'm very goal oriented.
- [Roy] Yeah, I know.
- [Dr. Martinez] You know that. And so my goal was in 20 years, I was gonna work my way up into a nice position and then retire. And then do something. And so, that's what I did. I started with the Corps of Cadets. Then I went over to financial aid, we started working together. Went over to admissions. We both went over to admissions. And then I got my PhD in Leadership, Education and Communication to the ALEC department here at Texas A&M University. And so my whole thing was; How am I going to be a better leader and a better father? And so, in my life right now; Where I'm at is, I got my PhD at 50. It's too late. Meaning, well it's never too late but, my recommendation is if you can get it sooner, better. Okay. So that's my advice. Any higher education, I got an MBA in '96 through Our Lady of the Lake University. So get that as soon as you can. My legacy now is; I don't need a big position. Even though I've got a nice position right now. I don't aspire to be President of the University. That's not even important to me. What's important is; what I know is, we gotta certainly love God with all your heart, your mind, your soul. And love your neighbor. I'm really trying to work on that. And what does God have for me in the future? And I see him working through me. I mean, it's nothing I do. It's what he wants. And so, I'll; for lack of better terms, ride out my next five or seven years, still do great, still get recognized very well as far as performance appraisals and things of that nature. But at some point I'm gonna retire. We're very active in our church here, St. Thomas Aquinas. Here in College Station. And some of the things that we do that are leading me to this next phase that you're talking; How am I gonna make a difference or an impact? When we do the hospital ministry, as you know, and my wife and I have been doing that for three years. So we take the Eucharist, which is a source and summit of the Catholic faith, to Catholic patients at the hospital. So we go maybe once or twice a month. And we go on Sundays. And our whole Sunday is devoted, typically, to going to church and just relaxing and thanking God for what we have. It's made a huge impact on both of our lives; doing this extra ordinary minister of Holy Communion. And to; One day we went in, we had eight people we had to see. And the first one we went in to, they were deaf. Both the patient and the spouse were deaf. They couldn't hear. So we had to work ourselves through writing and sign language. And I can't remember if they could read lips. But we definitely did a lot of writing. And it was just so beautiful to experience that. Well, then we went from there. We went one of the next ones, or maybe in the middle. It's a family that had a little baby. And so we're there and, you know the gift of life, how beautiful. And a young couple and so we're there and so we're excited. And they're excited and so then we can go down and towards the end, we go to a room where a gentleman is dying. I mean, you've seen death. Your parents just passed. My parents have passed. You know what that looks like. And we were there praying with them. And we asked the wife if she would like us to pray Divine Mercy for her and her husband there. And we prayed to Divine Mercy and the Virgin Mary said if you pray to Divine Mercy that Jesus will be there between that person and the person dying. They don't have to give any; Yeah, I want you to do that. He couldn't talk. And so it's just a beautiful moment. We saw the death. We saw life. And we saw death all in the same day.