MELCHOR ORTIZ

My wife, Gloria, and I were married in 1969. I completed a BS and an MS in Mathematics at Texas A&I in 1971. I then worked on a PhD in Statistics at Texas A&M completing in 1975.

My first job was at New Mexico State University in the college of Agriculture and Home Economics I worked my way through positions as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Full Professor. My responsibilities included teaching statistics classes, providing statistical support to university faculty researchers and to graduate students. I served on over 1,000 graduate student committees. As a result of my collaboration with a diverse research faculty, I have over 100 publications in research journals. I was appointed as Director of the University Statistics Center, Head of the Department of Experimental Statistics and, briefly, as Head of Home Economics Department. In 1985, I became Associate Dean and Director of Resident Instruction in the College of Agriculture. In 1991, I became Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

I retired from NMSU in 1993, but quickly became Director of the El Paso Campus of the University of Texas School of Public Health. In 2008, I moved to the Texas Tech Paul Foster School of Medicine at its new campus in El Paso.

Gloria and I are enjoying the grandchildren. Age range is now 8 to 16 years old.

Memories: standing at noon behind the 7-11 near campus eating a Frito pie and drinking a coke; going to school about 30 minutes early for a semester to learn how to work a slide rule; McCall's enthusiasm at pep rallies.