On Jan. 18, Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) lost employee and alumnus Sergio Galvan, 49, due to Covid-19 complications. Sergio had worked at the TAMUK bookstore in the Memorial Student Union Building (MSUB) for more 25 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergio, born August 14, 1971 in Eagle Pass, Texas, is survived by his wife Roc\u00edo Polendo de Galvan and three children: Barbara, 14, Giancarlo, 13, and America, 7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergio, nicknamed Papa Sergio by students who knew and loved him, was the Assistant Manager at the TAMUK bookstore and close friend of Manager Mary Gutierrez. Sergio and Mary had been friends for more than 23 years and had met, as students, here on campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe kind of stuck through it all together. He\u2019s just a good person, irreplicable. He liked to play jokes on me, and we just got along very well. He\u2019s been through all the big things in my life,\u201d Mary said. \u201cI learned a lot about being a giving person from him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary reminisced on memories she shared with her longtime friend. She remembered how he hated celebrating his birthday at the bookstore, his co-workers jokingly surprised him with a celebration every year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis past year we covered his whole workstation in post-it notes, and he was not happy. One year – we have a restroom here – one of the students suggested that we fill it with balloons so when he opened the door all the balloons popped out,\u201d Mary recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While a student at TAMUK in the \u201980s, Sergio earned three degrees in Biology, IT and Spanish. During his time, he met his wife Roc\u00edo. The two met at a party that took place in Sergio\u2019s apartment unbeknownst to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sergio and Roc\u00edo dated for 10 years and have been married for almost 15 years. Thursday, Jan. 28, would have been their 15-year anniversary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was an excellent father and husband. His priorities were the kids and the family,\u201d Roc\u00edo said. \u201cI know he\u2019s going to be missed. I miss him a lot. For 25 years we were together almost every single day [\u2026] It\u2019s hard, but I guess the fact that I have to be there for my kids I have to be strong and care about them first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary has described the marriage between Sergio and Roc\u00edo as a fairytale. Their love for each other, their kids and dancing was visible throughout the years they spent together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey would always be dancing and spinning around to all types of music,\u201d Director of Contracts and Grants at the Office of Research and Graduate Studies and sister-in-law Diana Polendo Luna said. \u201cEvery single gathering, they would be the people everyone would watch because they would be dancing, and they did it well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diana had a strong bond with Sergio; to her he was like her biological brother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would call him frequently at the bookstore,\u201d Diana said. \u201cHe\u2019s always been my go-to person on campus. Anytime we would hang up over the phone he would say \u2018Bueno, I love you, bye.\u2019 That was his thing, he was very lovable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giving, kind, helpful, positive and family-oriented were words that his loved ones often described him as. Students, current or graduated, and their family members would often call the bookstore to casually speak with him. After his passing, the Galvan family received multiple messages and cards from the many people who knew Sergio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s very rewarding to see how many lives he\u2019s touched,\u201d Diana said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sergio Galvan\u2019s funeral service was held in Eagle Pass last weekend. The mass was live streamed for friends and family who couldn\u2019t attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust the fact that he\u2019s no longer here, it\u2019s going to be very hard to pass that,\u201d Diana said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut I know that he\u2019s made a lot of friends and that a lot of people loved him. I\u2019m thankful to having the opportunity to meet him. He was just a happy soul.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Jan. 18, Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) lost employee and alumnus Sergio Galvan, 49, due to Covid-19 complications. Sergio had worked at the TAMUK bookstore… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":4946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,125,131],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[192],"class_list":["post-4942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-news-and-features","category-newsletter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"authors":[{"term_id":192,"user_id":42,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gabriella-mastroianni","display_name":"Gabriella Mastroianni","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/a5c44295fd719df888b78916422be7cc.jpg?ver=1778638481","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4942"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4987,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942\/revisions\/4987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4942"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}[soliloquy id=\"4948\"]<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n