Dr. Gary Ergish began his post-secondary education at San Antonio College on a music scholarship where he played several brass instruments in the symphonic band. When he ventured to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), he got “hooked” on biology and statistics. During his studies at UTSA, he was elected president of the local chapter of the Phi Sigma Society—a society devoted to the promotion of research in the biological sciences. He graduated from UTSA with a B.S. in Biology.
After graduation in 1979, Gary worked for the San Antonio-based research institution, Southwest Research Institute. Finding work “too much like work,” he joined the U.S. Air Force. After completing Navigator training, he was assigned to B-52H aircraft at Minot AFB, North Dakota. While in the Air Force, Gary discovered his love for the academic environment. After becoming an academic and flight instructor in 1985, he began his career in academia. His first academic positions, besides teaching, were that of Registrar followed by Assistant Provost.
In 1987, Gary was reassigned to the B-1B aircraft with a later follow-on assignment to the B-1 “schoolhouse” at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas. During his first six years at the B-1 training schoolhouse, Gary began as full-time faculty teaching and evaluating navigation procedures, and airmanship to new navigators seeking flight qualification in the B-1. Among his later schoolhouse positions, Gary served as Assistant Director of Student Services, Assistant Director of Academics, Faculty Development Director, Director of Teacher Training, and Department Chair.
In 1992, while completing his Master’s in Management and Human Relations from Abilene Christian University, Gary began his doctoral studies at Texas Tech University. A move to Alabama to join the graduate faculty at the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) slowed the writing of his dissertation on developing curriculum feedback protocols in Higher Education. However, to the relief of his family, Gary finally graduated from Texas Tech in 1997 with an Ed.D. in Higher Education, and as a member of Phi Kappa Phi. During the three years at ACSC, he held the positions of full-time graduate faculty and research advisor, one of the institution’s six course directors that produce the entire academic years’ course materials and lectures, and ended as an Assistant Department Chair.
In 1998, Gary returned to the B-1 schoolhouse in Abilene and in the same year completed his Master’s in History from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. As a senior educator, he moved through the positions of Associate Provost, Senior Academic and Flight Scheduler, Senior Curriculum Developer and Evaluator, duty at the Joint Command Headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, and ended his 24-year career in 2005, with the position as Dean of Instruction for the entire B-1 training program.
Since 2000, Gary has also taught with Embry-Riddle University at its center in Abilene, Texas. As an Adjunct Associate Professor, he has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in Statistics, Research Methods, Human Resource Management, Operational Research, Education, and History. He has chaired 28 Master’s theses to-date.