Hector Garcia SocietyJohn P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine


The Hector Garcia Society fosters supportive relationships between students, faculty and the local community in the pursuit of becoming more than physicians.

Hector Garcia

Hector P. García embodied Oslerian qualities as a physician, veteran, diplomat, and a champion for public education. Throughout his life, Dr. García lived by his motto, “Education is our freedom, and freedom should be everybody’s business.” Dr. García worked tirelessly to ensure that all children had equitable opportunities for quality education through continuously fighting for desegregation, staging school board sit-ins, and leading school enrollment campaigns for migrant students. As a UTMB alum, Dr. García continued to make education his business. In the mid-1970’s, Dr. García was personally invited by former UTMB president Dr. William C. Levin to serve as a member of the UTMB Alumni Advisory Committee on Minority Affairs. For more than 10 years, he played an integral role in assisting the admissions committee in recruiting and welcoming minority students. Dr. García was a distinguished UTMB alumni who acted with integrity and sought to improve the lives of others through civic engagement.

A Way of Life

The vision of the Osler Student Societies is to provide developing physicians insight into "A Way of Life", described by Sir William Osler, not through formal lecture, but through the guidance of mentors in contact with students within and outside their academic setting.