Lionel Cantu Jr.
Tri-Campus community mourns loss of alumnus
(May 29, 2002)--Lionel Cantu Jr., a popular assistant professor of sociology at the University of California - Santa Cruz (UCSC), died of cardiac arrest on May 26 in a Santa Cruz hospital. Cantu, 36, was a 1991 graduate of UTSA, where he earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and Spanish.
According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Cantu taught a graduate class last Monday before being hospitalized with intestinal pain Tuesday, friends say. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, and lived in Santa Cruz for about three years. Cantu attended Mount Scared Heart School and Central Catholic High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and master's and doctorate degrees from the University of California at Irvine.
He joined the UCSC faculty in 1999 from UC - Irvine, where he earned his Ph.D. in social science. Cantu's research focused on the ways in which sexuality influences migration. His other interests included race and ethnicity, and Latinos in the U.S.
UC colleagues recalled Cantu as bringing a sense of community to his department
and for inspiring students to persevere.
Cantu will be buried in San Antonio, with rosary tentatively scheduled to
be said this Friday and interment on Saturday, times and locations to be announced.
He is survived by his life partner, Hernando Molinares of Santa Cruz; parents Rosario and Lionel Cantu of San Antonio; sisters Rose Louise and Rachel Diane Cantu, both of San Antonio; a brother, Charles Cantu of San Antonio; and a grandmother, Herlinda Reyes.
At the family's request, an endowed scholarship is being created to honor Cantu. Contributions should be made payable to the UC Santa Cruz Foundation, with Cantu's name in the memo line, and sent to: UCSC Gift Administration, Carriage House, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077.
Funeral mass will be at 1 p.m., Friday, May 31, at St. Paul's Catholic
Church, 307 John Adams, St. Cloud. A rosary for Cantu will be conducted at
7 p.m., May 31, at Porter Loring Mortuary, 1101 McCollough.
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002