Born on the fabled King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas in 1927. Lauro Cavazos was Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine prior to becoming president of Texas Tech University in 1980. In 1988, Cavazos was appointed US Secretary of Education by President Reagan. The first Hispanic name to a cabinet-level position, he was reappointed the following year by President Bush. A crusader in raising the awareness of the educational inadequacies of Hispanics in the U.S., Cavazos was instrumental in persuading President Bush to sign the executive order creating the President’s Council on educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.