Ron Marquez: His time to help students cross the finish line
His story
Ron Marquez was born and raised in Albuquerque. A graduate of Manzano High School, he chose UNM without giving it much thought.
Ron Marquez was born and raised in Albuquerque. A graduate of Manzano High School, he chose UNM without giving it much thought.
“I never considered any other school but UNM,” he said.
Although he wasn’t sure on a major, he chose engineering because he was good in math and science, and his father worked in the nuclear division at Sandia National Laboratories. But being in a classified position, “he never could talk to us about what he did.”
As a student, Marquez immediately became connected to the School of Engineering, making lifelong friends like Brian Burnett (a civil engineering student and the head of the School of Engineering Alumni Advisory Board and Campaign Steering Committee), whom he met in Engineering 101. They quickly became study buddies, along with a few other engineering students, with whom he is still in touch.
He said that he liked that a background in chemical engineering provided an excellent foundation to work within other engineering disciplines. When he received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1978, he discovered the opportunities available in the booming oil and gas industry, in particular the upstream oil industry. He first took a summer internship in California while still a student and found it to be interesting work. After graduation, his first job was in Texas, then was intrigued by an opportunity in the far-off state of Alaska. “I still call it a magical landscape,” he said.
Every other week for 10 years, he would take a two-hour flight from Anchorage to live on the North Slope near the Arctic Ocean. He would work in the oil fields for one week and then one week off in Anchorage. Temperatures in the -40 to -50-degree range were not unusual, and the sun was a rare occurrence in the fall and winter, unlike in sunny New Mexico.
The adventures didn’t stop there. He and his family, wife Suzanne and children Jason and Julia, moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where the kids attended school for six years.
“It was a great experience for the whole family, and we were fortunate to be able to travel the world,” Marquez said.
After 37 years away from New Mexico, he and his wife moved back to Albuquerque. Although he had been disconnected from UNM all that time, he eventually reconnected with Brian Burnett, who encouraged him to get involved with the School of Engineering.
“I was looking for a way to give back in retirement. Over my career, I had the chance to hire a lot of engineers. I became passionate about recruiting engineers, with an emphasis of increasing women engineers in the workforce,” he said.
He immediately saw a way to apply this to helping the School of Engineering: “UNM opened doors for me, and this opportunity presented itself as a way to give back.”
How he is giving back
His gift established the Ron Marquez Degree Completion Scholarship Fund, which provides funds to qualified students — with a preference given to students who are in need of financial assistance in order to complete their undergraduate degree in the fifth year or later and within one or two semesters of graduation. The funds will be administered through the Engineering Student Success Center.
Marquez said after learning that many traditional scholarships end after four years and many students lack funding toward the end of their degree program, he saw the opportunity to address a need.
Marquez said that the engineering curriculum was intense, and that afforded him little time for extracurricular activities, as a student.
“If I could do it over again, I would have taken five years,” he said. “I’ve seen many excellent engineers come out after five years or more, and I wanted to help them finish out that fifth or sixth year.”
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