Some people in today’s society judge personal success by how large your financial portfolio is or what title you may have acquired. The following is another definition of success.
Born in 1930, the second oldest of five children to Ramon and Petra Gomez of La Presa San Martin, Coahuila, Mexico, Teodoro wasn’t afforded the opportunity to obtain a formal education. Being one of the older children, he had to work to assist the family. As a young boy, Teodoro was a goat herder and cowboy, “vaquero,” the latter which he loved. He enjoyed the outdoors and was adept at survival, living off the land and what nature offered. Shortly after he met Cleotilde, the love of his life, they and his brothers, mother and uncles moved the herds from Candido Aguilar to Anahuac. Teodoro and Cleotilde later relocated to Valle Hermosa where the first of nine children was born.
Teodoro was a pioneer of sorts. Using acquisition, supply and demand skill sets, he would purchase items available from one area and transport them to another for resale. He purchased bananas, beans, rice, sodas and tortillas and took them to areas where they were needed and sold or trade them for items needed elsewhere. He would then take the items he traded for to another location for resale. His children remember times when he sold/traded sodas, ice, eggs and other food items to workers in the fields, once acquiring a pig in trade. A “Food Truck” of sorts before there were any food trucks.
An early entrepreneur with exceptional mechanical aptitude, Teodoro would travel across the border at Nuevo Laredo in search of used/discarded appliances, electrical motors, “swamp coolers,” and anything else he could rebuild and make operational again. He would transport these items on a large tricycle with a box on the front, which looked funny yet difficult to the untrained eye. After repairing these items, he would sell or trade the items for things his family needed. There were times he actually collected cardboard and transported it back into Mexico and sold it. This was “recycling” before it was known as recycling.
In 1973, Teodoro moved his family from Mexico to Georgetown, Texas where he found employment with the Georgetown Railroad. A man of integrity, he lived his life the same as he taught his children, with honesty, loyalty and hard work, never taking advantage of anyone but always willing to help. To all who knew him, Mr. Gomez was a loving, patient, supportive, God loving Christian, whose priorities were God, family, friends and hard work. In his spare time, Mr. Gomez liked to travel and was especially fond of returning to Mexico to visit family and friends.
“Lolo” is survived by his wife of 68 years, Cleotilde Gomez, four sons, five daughters and their spouses,; Juan Gomez (Mague), Rosa Reyna (Leandro), Carmela Sapp (Ben), Ted Gomez (Kristin), Javier Gomez, Ruben Gomez (Maribel), Yasmin Gomez, Elida Sanchez (Leonel), Veronica Gomez (Alex); twenty grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.
In a world where one is judged by financial success or a legacy of personal accomplishments, Teodoro Gomez’s life accomplishments are deserving to be regarded amongst the best. An uneducated goat herder who at times lived in lean-to(s) in the hills of Mexico lived 89 years; raised children that obtained college education and influenced grandchildren to do the same; was indebted to no one but met everyone with the biggest of smiles and a hearty handshake.
Visitation will be 6:00 P.M. till 8:00 P.M. on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 in the chapel of Cook-Walden Davis Funeral Home, 2900 Williams Drive, Georgetown,Texas. Funeral services will also be in the chapel of Cook-Walden Davis Funeral Home at 10:00 A.M. on Thursday, January 17, 2019 followed by interment services at Georgetown Memorial Cemetery in Georgetown, Texas.
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