AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Jaime N. Delgado, a University Distinguished Teaching Professor whose 42-year career in the College of Pharmacy at The University of Texas at Austin gave him the longest tenure of any living pharmacy faculty member, died Friday (Oct. 5) at St. David’s Hospital.
Delgado, the Servier Regents Professor in the College of Pharmacy, had transitioned from professor to professor emeritus status on Aug. 31. Until that time, he had continued teaching several pharmacy courses each year that are required of every undergraduate pharmacy major.
He additionally supervised 14 Ph.D. students over the years. Widely recognized for his contributions to medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical education, Delgado never lost sight of the importance of teaching. It is estimated that he taught more than 6,000 pharmacy students in required and elective pharmacy courses during his career at the university.
Despite his new emeritus status, he was still teaching a freshman seminar elective this fall. After winning one of his numerous teaching awards from the university in 1982, Delgado explained his teaching philosophy. “You have to make a course dynamic to keep (students) interested,” he said. “When a teacher loses his enthusiasm, he loses the ability to be an effective teacher.”
Dr. Steven W. Leslie, dean of the College of Pharmacy, said Delgado was widely admired.
“Dr. Delgado had a distinguished and illustrious career, and he was a mentor and role model to many of us during his faculty tenure of 42 years,” Leslie said. “We have admired his wisdom, leadership, scholarly activity and international stature. As both an alumnus of our college and a faculty member, he was truly dedicated to his profession and to this college. True to that dedication, he was here working in his office, even yesterday.
“Dr. Delgado loved our students, and he loved to teach. He understood that his destiny in life was to be an educator, and he was outstanding.”
Born July 28, 1932, in El Paso, Delgado was graduated with honors from the College of Pharmacy in 1954, then completed his master’s and doctor’s degrees at the University of Minnesota. He joined The University of Texas at Austin faculty in 1959, and was named to the Jacques P. Servier Regents Professorship in Pharmacy by The University of Texas System Board of Regents in 1987.
Delgado served as a consultant to the U.S. Public Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services, and was a member of grant review committees of NIH and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. His honors and awards are many, including being named a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 1997, recognition five times as a recipient of the Texas Excellence Teaching Award and recent recognition with both the Pharmacy Alumni Association’s William J. Sheffield Outstanding Alumnus Award and the Legend of Pharmacy Award. He was selected as the outstanding professor by the University of Texas Mexican American Health Professions Organization in 1995.
Delgado was a contributor to Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry and served as editor for the ninth and 10th edition of the Textbook of Organic, Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry published in 1998. This text is used in pharmacy classes across the country. Additionally, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Los Andes, Merida, Venezuela; the University of Nuevo Leon and Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico; and the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Peru.
Delgado is survived by his wife, Celia Delgado of Austin, and a daughter, Dr. Celyna Delgado of San Antonio.
A memorial service is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Oct. 8, at Cook Walden Funeral Home, 14501 North I-35 in Pflugerville. A "Celebration of Life" ceremony will be conducted at the University of Texas Faculty Center at about 3 p.m. following the memorial service.
