Retiring president of TSTC honored by board of regents

HARLINGEN - J. Gilbert Leal, retiring as president of Texas State Technical College-Harlingen after 30 years, has received two honors from the board of regents.

The campus library will be named the Dr. J. Gilbert Leal Learning Resource Center and he has been named president emeritus.

"Looking back over 39 years, it has gone pretty fast," he said of his years of service at the campus. "I feel pretty honored."

Leal started as an adult basic education instructor in 1969 at what was then called Texas State Technical Institute-Harlingen.

Later he was a migrant counselor supervisor, director of admissions and records, dean of students and headed the Student Services Division.

In 1978, he was named TSTC-Harlingen's general manager, and in 1983 that title was changed to campus president.

When Leal started 39 years ago, there were four buildings and 67 students. Now there are 90 buildings and 5,400 students.

A native of Benavides, Leal is the son of a farmer, rancher and politician.

While a student at North Texas State University, he married Norma Oliveira. She began teaching in Harlingen in 1967.

He began teaching seventh-grade physical education in Brownsville in 1968. They have three sons and grandchildren.

When Leal joined the TSTC staff in 1969, the Harlingen campus was only two years old.

That same year, he was drafted, so he joined the Texas National Guard, serving six years at a unit in Brownsville.

As the campus grew, the state lifted curriculum restrictions and an 18-credit-hour package of academic college courses was blended with technical training in areas such as computer maintenance technology, lasers and welding.

TSTC-Harlingen custom designed its coursework to fit the needs of industry and its students who would seek jobs at the manufacturing plants that local economic development leaders were trying to lure to the Rio Grande Valley, Leal said.

Later, even more academic coursework was offered that has been accepted for transfer to the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg and the University of Texas at Brownsville for the past 15 years, he said.

Those courses round out students earning technical degrees, but also help Valley students who may later transfer to a four-year college or university, Leal said.

In the beginning, the goal was just to help former migrant students to earn a high school equivalency diploma and then make it through a technical training program, he said.

Students can earn certificates in technical programs, an associate of applied science degree or a bachelor of arts in technology degree, he said.

During a 2005 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools evaluation visit, TSTC-Harlingen received a finding of "no recommendations," Leal said.

"That's close to perfect ... that's like winning the Super Bowl," he said.

Leal also earned a master of education degree from Pan American University (now UTPA) in 1974 and a doctor of philosophy degree from East Texas State University in Commerce in 1986.

He is planning to spend his retirement years at his cattle ranch 22 miles west of Falfurrias, Leal said. He has been spending weekends there since 1994, he said.

"I'm going to try it for six months to a year," he said. "I'm not closing the door (to further work in the field of education)."

The benefit that young people have received from TSTC-Harlingen is what makes him most proud, Leal said.

"What we've done here for many, many years is that we've transformed a lot of lives," he said.

The credit should go to the entire TSTC faculty and staff, he said.