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Castro Retires ‘On a Very High Note’
Man of many talents enjoys satisfying 33-year sojourn with opportunities to imagine, create and work
Gil Castro has gone fishing.
Gil Castro, Ph.D., left, and UT Health Science Center President James T. Willerson, M.D., kid each other during a retirement reception in Castro’s honor. The reception was hosted by vice presidents Michael McKinney, M.D.; L. Maximilian Buja, M.D.; and Peter Davies, M.D., Ph.D.; and Medical School Dean Stanley Schultz, M.D. Photo by Pamela Lewis.
After 33 years as a faculty member and administrator at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Gil Castro, Ph.D., still feels good about his job and the people with whom he has worked. But he chose to retire and to have more time to enjoy some other parts of life – hunting, fishing, woodwork, gardening and grandparenting.
“The last academic year has been one of the most rewarding of my career,” Castro said. “I’m leaving on a very high note.”
During the past year, he held a dual appointment as vice president for inter-institutional relations at the UT Health Science Center and vice president for health affairs at UT El Paso (UTEP). Working with UTEP President Diana Natalicio, Ph.D., Castro coordinated UTEP’s expanding health-related research and education partnerships.
“You’ve been very helpful,” said James T. Willerson, M.D., health science center president, at a retirement reception in honor of Castro. “I’m very grateful to you for all the work you’ve done in many different ways.”
Castro began his professional career as a parasitologist, conducting research on a parasite that lives in the gastrointestinal tract. He was attracted to the brand-new UT Medical School at Houston in 1972 by the first physiology department chairman, who was building a research program in gastrointestinal physiology.
Medical School Dean Stanley Schultz, M.D., who came to Houston in 1979 to chair the physiology department, said, “Gil turned out to be one of my very best faculty members – a guy with incredible academic savvy who made a great contribution to us.”
Castro retired as a professor in the department now named integrative biology and pharmacology at the Medical School and the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston. Even after his official retirement, second-year medical students honored him in September as an outstanding faculty member from their first year, naming him among the 10 Best Teachers for the spring semester.
But his work went far beyond one department. He influenced “the education of future generations of scientists and health care professionals,” said L. Maximilian Buja, M.D., executive vice president for academic affairs. “Gil worked to increase the diversity of people involved in the health care field so that members of underserved populations have the same chances as everybody else to become part of the field. He has been recognized by deans and presidents and has taken on multiple commitments throughout the health science center.”
Castro recalls a conversation and a hamburger on Webber Plaza in 1990 as the beginning of his administrative roles. A colleague from Prairie View A&M University, Gene Brams, “happened to be visiting one day and thanking me for providing contacts in various departments for his students. Gene was saying, ‘You don’t know the resources that you have here – how spectacular they are. Our students have never seen anything like this.’”
The comment sparked Castro to develop a proposal that grew into an administrative internship program for Prairie View students to spend the summer working at the health science center. In later years, students from other Texas universities joined the program.
To increase diversity among medical students, Castro was appointed associate dean for special projects at the Medical School. As assistant vice president for education access and equity at the health science center, he created and directed an institution-wide program, InterCon, that was designed to increase recruitment of students from disadvantaged backgrounds into the health professions.
He also was appointed to chair a committee that developed the health science center’s Academic Leadership Development Program, and he served as interim vice president for academic affairs and research from 2001 to 2003.
Opportunities to create something new and worthwhile made all of those positions highlights for Castro. He attributes his longevity at the health science center to his desire to do new things.
“There’s always plenty to do around here,” he said. “There are new problems that need solutions. And I’ve been willing to propose solutions oriented to the needs in the organization.”
To new faculty members just beginning their careers, he advises, “Establish your creative programs first. It could be research, it could be teaching, but you have to do something that is creative and new and important to people around the country. “
The research is the basis for everything that I’ve done here – both the research and otherwise. The research experience overall was just outstanding,” Castro said.
“And I think that it was the research that provided the credibility that allowed me to take a big risk on something else.”
Castro summed up his years at the health science center in his official retirement letter to Michael McKinney, M.D., senior executive vice president and chief operating officer:
“The time spent with the university has passed quickly and been more fulfilling than anticipated. Even though my expectations were high upon arrival in Houston in the summer of 1972, I could not have planned a more satisfying sojourn.
“I will depart with wonderful memories and good stories to tell. I am grateful for the boundless opportunities to imagine, create and work to realize the institutional vision, as it has evolved, and to interact with outstanding individuals.”
By Ina Fried, Public Affairs