Amarillo College to honor 4 Distinguished Alumni on Tuesday
Amarillo College (AC) has announced that a cherished AC tradition interrupted by the pandemic will be revived this week, when four individuals receive AC’s Distinguished Alumni Award.
This year's honorees are Dr. Pablo Diaz-Esquivel, Dr. Clint Esler, Matt Griffith, and Dr. Paul Matney. The four will be the guests of honor at the Distinguished Alumni Luncheon, to be hosted by the AC Foundation at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 3 in the Amarillo Country Club Ballroom.
Matney not only attended Amarillo College as a freshman but went on to serve as its president from 2009 to 2014, a news release notes.
Meet the 2023 Distinguished Alumni honorees
Diaz-Esquivel, a 1970 AC graduate, is a board-certified doctor of obstetrics and gynecology. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin and earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He is a longstanding member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and belongs to the distinguished Winfred L. Wiser Society. He has been a fellow of the American College of OBGYN since 1983, and he is a founding member of the Children’s Health Foundation. Diaz-Esquivel has served as president of the medical staff at Northwest Texas Hospital and was a recipient in 2019 of the Vitalis Patients’ Choice Award.
Esler is a doctor of dental surgery. He attended Amarillo College (1972-74) and transferred his credits directly to the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio – the only student at that time accepted to the dental school there without a bachelor’s degree, the news release notes. Esler then returned to Amarillo and practiced dentistry for 42 years before retiring in 2020. A 1972 graduate of Amarillo High School, Esler credits his memorable AC professors for providing him with the stellar educational foundation that led to his successful transition to dental school.
Griffith has served as vice president of Rockrose Development, LLC since 1993. A graduate of Caprock High School, where a drafting class initially sparked his passion for architectural design, Griffith became a planner for the city of Amarillo while pursuing higher education, first at Amarillo College and later at West Texas A&M University. Since leaving the city for Rockrose about 30 years ago, he has contributed to major regional projects including Westover Park, Westover Village, City View and Pinnacle. Griffith’s commitment to education is underscored by his volunteer work with AmTech, Junior Achievement, and Caprock High, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013. He holds leadership roles in the Texas Panhandle Builders Association and Arrow Child and Family Ministries.
Matney, "whose unprecedented odyssey swept him through the corridors of Amarillo College as a student, instructor, professor, dean and, ultimately, to the presidency, retired in 2014 after 35 years on the AC workforce," the release states. A product of Amarillo High School, he became an AC student in 1967, then furthered his education at University of Texas at Austin. He received his master’s degree from West Texas State University and a doctoral degree from Texas Tech University. Matney joined the AC faculty in 1979. By 2005, he had risen to vice president and dean of instruction, and in 2009 he was named president. He retired in 2014. Matney spent 19 years as a local weekend weatherman and has been the voice of Amarillo High School Sandies’ baseball games for more than 20 years. He was inducted into the Sandie Hall of Fame in 2011. In addition, he serves on the board of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and on the advisory board of the Center for the Study of the American West.
According to a news release, the Distinguished Alumni Award was last presented in 2019.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo College to honor 4 Distinguished Alumni on Tuesday
