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45 Years: Javier Garcia

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By Ellen Beth Levitt

Employee Recognition 2016

Long-term employees play an invaluable role in the life of UT Southwestern Medical Center. Their faithful, dedicated service has helped the institution become what it is today. In this special edition of Center Times, we showcase some of these employees and their varied interests. Meet the 2016 honorees 
Javier Garcia
Javier Garcia

When Javier Garcia joined St. Paul University Hospital 45 years ago, he thought he’d be there for a couple of years and then move on.

“I was 17 and my first job was restocking supplies for Central Sterile Supply, Surgery, and the Emergency Department,” he says. “I liked the job and the people I worked with. Working here is interesting and exciting. Time flew by, and I can’t believe it’s been that many years.”

Currently serving as the Implant Coordinator within the Surgery Department at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, Mr. Garcia is in charge of ordering pacemakers, heart valves, breast implants, and all other products that are implanted in patients during surgery. He also makes sure that the correct charges for those products are posted in Epic, the electronic medical record.

“The job is challenging because we need to make sure that the doctors and patients get what they need, and different things come up every day,” he says.

One of his special memories was being promoted to the position of Director of Central Sterile Supply, which coincided with an exciting time in his life – the birth of his daughter. Then, about 20 years ago, with a reorganization, the ordering and restocking of patient surgical supplies was transferred to the Department of Surgery. He was asked to move into a newly created position there, and he’s worked in that area ever since.

Another memorable time in his career was the move to Clements University Hospital. “It’s so much bigger, and we have more patients to care for and more people working in the Department compared to when we were at St. Paul.”

Originally from McAllen, he moved to Dallas with his family at age 6. Outside of work, Mr. Garcia likes reading and watching sports. “I’m a big Dallas Cowboys fan,” he says.

Mr. Garcia and his wife, Cristina, have two sons and one daughter, and three grandchildren.

1970 Snapshot 

Two new UT Southwestern employees were among those who went through orientation in 1970. Little did they know that those introductions to the institution would lead to 45-year careers at the Medical Center.

At UTSW

  • Fall enrollment for all four classes of medical students stood at 426.
  • Additions were being built onto the Carey Building and the Basic Science Research Building. An aggressive program of growth was being drafted to include construction of the Fred F. Florence Bioinformation Center, the Tom and Lula Gooch Auditorium, the Cecil H. and Ida Green Science Building, the Eugene McDermott Academic Administration Building, and the interconnecting Eugene McDermott Plaza.

Dallas doings

  • Dallas, a city of about 844,400 residents in 1970, was bolstered by the growth of technology-driven companies like LTV and Texas Instruments. That growth and diversity impacted North Texas and reached as far as Fort Worth (population – 393,000), so much so that the term “Metroplex” was first used as a label for the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area
  • For music lovers, the Texas International Pop Festival was held near Lewisville and attracted thousands of fans. Many of the featured acts and musicians who played at the event traveled directly from Woodstock, held two weeks earlier.

National view

  • Yearly income for households was about $7,800, the price of a new house averaged $23,400, and a new car was just under $4,000. You could buy a loaf of bread for 24 cents, and it took a 6-cent stamp to mail a letter.
  • Political pressure from the young, including military personnel returning from the Vietnam conflict, was mounting and would soon result in voting rights being lowered to 18 years of age.
  • In all, about 8.5 million Americans were bettering themselves by enrolling in institutions of higher learning. Tuition at Harvard College was $2,400 per year.

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