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SAN BENITO — Family and friends are remembering former San Benito school board President Joe G. Gonzalez as a loving father who instilled his love for his community in his children while giving much of his life to educating a generation of students, serving 16 years on the board while working to open five campuses.
Gonzales, 73, died July 23 after suffering complications from diabetes.
“He loved people,” his son Adrian Gonzalez, Cameron County’s Precinct 3 constable, said. “He loved helping people. It was the joy of his life.”
His father passed his love for his community to his children, Gonzalez said.
“In my family, we always try to help the community,” he said. “My dad taught us from a very young age, ‘You’ve got to get involved. Being a citizen comes with responsibility. We’re all supposed to help.’ What gives me strength is that my father would want me working. He told me, ‘Always remember, son — we’re here to serve.’”
During his father’s last days, Gonzalez told him about the lessons he passed down.
“I told him, ‘Pops, if you’re ready to go, I’ll take care of it from here,’” Gonzalez said.
After graduating from San Benito High School, Joe G. Gonzalez joined the Texas National Guard and Army Reserves, serving as a sergeant, before going on to a 30-year career as a social worker with the Texas Department of Human Services.
In 1974, he married the love of his life, Maria Elena, with whom he had four children.
By 1998, he was running for a school board seat, going on to serve 16 years.
“He was a bigger-than-life person when it came to the school district,” former Superintendent Antonio Limon, whom Gonzalez’s board hired in 2004, said. “He had such a heart for the community of San Benito. He loved the community and he loved the school district. He was an exceptional, exceptional board member to work with. He was a very caring board member, a hands-on person. He wanted to get the best instruction for the kids and he cared about the staff being compensated properly.”
Throughout his tenure, Gonzalez’s board helped pass more than $100 million in bonds, with a state program covering 75% of project costs, building Dr. Raul Garza, Jr. Elementary, Judge Oscar de la Fuente Elementary, Angela Gerusa Leal Elementary, Riverside Middle School and Veterans’ Memorial Academy, while pushing to build Bobby Morrow Stadium.
At the time, the district’s enrollment was peaking at about 13,000 students, Limon said.
“Enrollment was growing considerably every year so there was a need for more schools,” he said. “He was instrumental in bond elections. He and the board were instrumental in talking with the community about our needs.”
While his grandparents were raising him, he learned “love was the foundation” to his family, Yesenia Costilla, his oldest daughter, said.
“Even though they lived a poor life and it was tough, there was always love in the home and he lived a good life,” Costilla, a realtor, said.
Years later, the lessons he learned would lead him to run for his school board seat, his son said.
“He wanted to fight for people who had no voice,” he said. “The reason he got into politics was because his grandfather was a custodian for the old San Benito High School in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s and he felt the ancillary staff was not paid enough for what they did. They did all the work and got very little pay.”
At home, Gonzalez instilled strong values in his children.
“He expected honesty and integrity,” Costilla said. “Those were values with him, and they’re mine. He was always a fair man. He did everything in fairness.”
His children remember him as a strict and loving father.
“My father was a disciplinarian but he had a very good heart,” Gonzalez said. “There were a lot of times I told him, ‘Dad, you’re not being fair.’ But he said, ‘Son get used to it — life isn’t fair.’”
Since he was a boy, music was a big part of Joe. G. Gonzalez’s life, leading him to sing lead vocals for his band La Distancia, with whom he recorded albums while appearing on “Aqui Rogelio” and the “Johnny Canales Show.”
“Music was life to him,” Costilla said. “It fed his soul. He would try to connect with us through the music. He transferred the Beatles and the ’60’s to his family.”
While his son worked as the band’s “roadie,” his daughter helped him transcribe song lyrics.
“He was a mentor,” Costilla said. “I remember when I was a kid I learned how to write in Spanish. When he heard a song he wanted to cover, he would ask me to write the lyrics, and then he’d take the time to sit down with me and go over them so if I had a misspelled word, he would correct it so I could learn to write it the right way.”
On the field, he turned to sports, leading a softball team called Joe’s Misfits.
“My dad was huge on sports,” Costilla said. “He was a true Texas teams sports fan — the Longhorns, the Houston Astros, the Dallas Cowboys, and, of course, the Greyhounds.”
