Nuclear scientist Raul Garza--my Uncle Roy--died last Sunday at the age of 64 years old after a long, painful battle with stomach cancer. He worked at the prestigious Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory alongside other revered scientists like physicist John Molitoris and helped our nation in more ways than many of us will ever know. Back when he was a young child, his parents purchased a multivolume Oxford Encyclopedia set for him and his siblings--including my grandmother who was the eldest child--to read, and he managed to read and memorize the entire set. He set academic records at the local community college which still stand to this very day, and used to ride his bicycle to class because he could not afford a vehicle. He managed to get his B.S. and then go on to graduate school for an M.S. and Ph.D at a time when Mexican Americans were still discriminated against by law. He was an avid firearms enthusiast, member of the NRA, Greek Orthodox Christian, intellectual, and animal lover who asked that instead of flowers at his funeral, the attendees make a donation to the SPCA. He died last Sunday, and I have to say that I am very downtrodden about his death and hope to someday live up to his legacy.