On June 20, 2023, the University of Texas at San Antonio celebrated the re-naming of the Prefreshman Engineering Program (PREP) after the program’s founder, Manuel P. Berriozábal. In 1976, three years into his tenure, Berriozábal created the program that has reached more than 50,000 students across Texas.
Photo courtesy of the University of Texas at San Antonio
In an oft-told story, Manuel P. Berriozábal was a professor in the early days of the University of Texas at San Antonio when he read a quote in a local magazine claiming that the city’s Mexican American community “is not where engineers come from.”
The comment galvanized his already firm commitment to uplift Hispanic youth and eventually led to the creation of the Prefreshman Engineering Program, a rigorous summer program that prepares middle and high school students for college-level engineering coursework.
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Berriozábal died Wednesday after a short illness. He was 94.
Since its launch in 1979, more than 50,000 Texas students, many from Hispanic and low-income families, have taken PREP courses, and the concept was replicated by numerous colleges and universities in Texas and elsewhere. Berriozábal served as director of the local program through 2003 and, in 2023, it was renamed the Dr. Manuel P. Berriozábal Prefreshman Engineering Program.
Former Mayor Henry Cisneros got a firsthand look at how seriously Berriozábal took the program when his daughter, Mercedes, was enrolled in it and ran into a conflict with her schedule as a member of her high school cheer squad.
“So Mercedes went to Dr. Berriozábal and asked for a week off to participate in a week-long practice session,” he recalled. “And he said, ‘Absolutely not. You have to decide between mathematics and cheer and I recommend you choose mathematics.’ “
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In addition to founding PREP, Berriozábal was professor emeritus of Mathematics at UTSA, a charter member of Texas Science Hall of Fame and, in 2001, recipient of the Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics, the most prestigious award for service offered by the Mathematical Association of America.
In a statement, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said, in part, “The legacy Dr. Berriozábal leaves behind is one of service and compassion, driven by his unwavering commitment to his students and inspiring them to strive for excellence in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The work he’s done to reach youth, and particularly Latino youth, across San Antonio and embolden them to reach their full potential cannot be overstated.”
Berriozábal was born in San Antonio in 1931 to Dr. Manuel Berriozábal and the former Emma Wand. When he was 1 year old, the family moved to Independence, Mo., to live with his grandfather.
“He had a real Andy Hardy boyhood,” said Maria Berriozábal, his wife of more than 50 years, referring to the MGM films that helped define small-town American life. “During World War II, he and his friends would gather scrap metal to sell for the war effort and then use the money to buy candy or ice cream or go to the movies.”
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Even as a schoolboy, education was always very important to him, especially mathematics.
“I used to ask him why he liked mathematics and he said because it’s very organized,” she said. “It’s truth.”
Manuel Berriozábal earned a master’s degree in mathematics from Notre Dame and a doctorate in topology, a branch of mathematics that studies the properties of shapes and spaces, from the University of California at Los Angeles.
His first job was teaching mathematics at Tulane University in New Orleans but he eventually moved to Louisiana State University because he wanted to teach in a public school.
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“It was a very different student body at LSU,” Maria Berriozábal said.
He met his future wife, who was working for the county judge and attending school at night, in 1972 while visiting San Antonio to explore a job teaching at the new UTSA.
The couple married in 1975 and lived in New Orleans for several years. But Manuel Berriozábal wanted to teach Mexican-American children so, in 1976, they moved to San Antonio where he became one of UTSA’s founding professors. In 1981, Maria Berriozábal became the first Hispanic woman to serve on the San Antonio City Council.
“When they moved here, it was a wonderful win-win proposition for Manuel, for Maria, for UTSA and for the city,” Cisneros said.
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Manuel Berriozábal’s interest in preparing students for careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics — what eventually became known as STEM — was rooted in the understanding that the world was changing fast, and students needed a more specialized education.
“He wanted to help those being left behind,” Maria Berriozábal explained. “Manny really lived the Catholic principles of social justice. He thought it was unfair that some children fell behind.”
Through the years, he often spoke to PREP graduates, usually giving them the same message: “Education is power and that power is to be used not for yourself but for others.”
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A public visitation is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m., including a eulogy at 6:30 p.m. on April 30 at The Angelus Funeral Home Chapel, 1119 N. St. Mary’s St. A viewing and rosary will begin at 9 a.m., followed by a funeral Mass at 11 a.m. May 1 at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, 210 St. Ann St.