Gómez, Severo (1924–2006)

Severo Gómez, a descendant of Plácido Benavides, the “Paul Revere” of the Texas War for Independence, was born on January 18, 1924, the seventh of nine children, to Severo and Paula Hinojosa Gómez in Woodsboro, Refugio County, Texas.

The younger Severo Gómez had a long history in education in Texas. He graduated as salutatorian in the class of 1942 at Woodsboro High School and entered the school of education at Texas College of Arts and Industries (Texas A & I) in Kingsville (now Texas A & M University) the fall of that year. His college education was interrupted by World War II when he entered the army. He served from 1943 to 1946 in the European Theater. Upon discharge, he returned to Texas A&I and graduated in 1948 with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and mathematics. In 1955, he completed a master of science degree. He taught science and math in the Benavides and Rio Grande City High Schools in Texas from 1948 until 1959. This entry describes his career.

In 1960, Gómez began an administrative career at the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in Austin and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, earning a PhD in educational administration in 1963. His tenure at the state department of education included serving as a consultant, assistant director of guidance and supervision, program director for science, director of the Division of Program Approvals, and state coordinator for International Education, and culminated with his 1967 appointment as the first Mexican American assistant commissioner of education, and the first head of the International and Bilingual Education department, until his retirement in 1975.

As a member of the Committee on Latin American Affairs of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Gómez traveled extensively in Latin America, conducting programs in bilingual/binational schools in Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, and Guatemala.

An advocate for bilingual education internationally, Gómez was largely responsible for planning, organizing, and serving as executive director of the first National Conference on Bilingual Education, held April 14 and 15, 1972, at the University of Texas at Austin. The conference, to the goal of which was the implementation and continued development of bilingual programs throughout the nation, was sponsored by the TEA, in cooperation with Education Service Center, Region XIII, and the U.S. Department of Education. The conference's closing remarks by Gómez gave a succinct summary of the state of understanding of the concept of bilingual education at that early point in its history. Gómez noted that several components mentioned during the conference should become the foundation for bilingual education programs. These included initiating children into school with instruction in their home language, providing language development and instruction of subject matter in their first and second languages, and paying attention to children forming a positive identity with respect to their cultural background. These components, as Gómez called them, served, with only minor modification, as the underpinnings of transitional bilingual education for many years to come.

Gomez's professional association memberships included the National Science Teachers Association, National Educational Association, Texas Academy of Science, Texas State Teachers Association, Phi Delta Kappa, and the International Good Neighbor Council. He was also a member of the Knights of Columbus and volunteered as a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) teacher of Catholic teens and counselor to the Columbian Squires, the youth arm of the Knights of Columbus. He died on October 17, 2006, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

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