Vietnam veteran Lorenzo “Larry” Gonzalez helped found the U.S. Military Veterans with Parkinson’s, an organization that established a link between the disease and exposure to Agent Orange.
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease while in his 50s, Lorenzo “Larry” Gonzalez, who had served three tours in Vietnam with the Navy, decided there had to be a reason.
“He started to ask himself why … then he started doing some research,” said his wife, Rachel Gonzalez. “He found two other men … they got together and started finding others who had Parkinson’s and had been in Vietnam.”
After a few years of research, Gonzalez and the other veterans were able to establish a connection between Agent Orange exposure and developing Parkinson’s disease.
Presenting their research to the Institute of Medicine in 2008, the veterans were instrumental in the disease being added to the Veteran’s Administration’s presumptive list of service-connected diseases, which enabled thousands of veterans to get help.
Gonzalez died of cancer Oct. 10 at 69.
The oldest of six children raised on the West Side, Gonzalez graduated from Jefferson High School in 1966 before enrolling at what was then San Antonio Community College.
Joining the Navy in 1969 after realizing he would soon be drafted anyway, he was sent to the Mekong Delta as a river rat, the nickname given to members of the River Patrol Force.
Trained as an electrician, Gonzalez also worked on aircraft carriers during his three tours.
Discharged in 1972, Gonzalez returned to San Antonio, married and began working for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. as a lineman, also starting college again.
After attending St. Mary’s University full time, Gonzalez graduated with an electrical engineering degree in 1980 and was immediately recruited by several companies.
Choosing AT&T, Gonzalez worked with the company for 17 years before being laid off, at which time he started his own company selling scanners and conducting software classes.
He developed early symptoms of Parkinson’s in the mid-2000s.
Co-founding the U.S. Military Veterans with Parkinson’s, Gonzalez helped analyze numerous studies and interviewed hundreds other Vietnam veterans who had developed the disease, usually about 33 years after returning from the war.
Even as his health failed, forcing him to stop working, Gonzalez continued to try to find answers.
“He was always doing research,” his wife said. “Always reading about Parkinson’s; he wanted to know what caused it.”
mheidbrink@express-news.net
http://www.mysanantonio.com/obituaries/article/Vietnam-vet-Gonzalez-helped-establish-link-12282813.php#photo-14361470
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