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June 26, 2025
SAN ANTONIO – He no longer sees patients, but he still makes rounds, checking on his employees and patients at the main clinic he helped design.
Drive on this stretch of Pleasanton Road, and you see the signs of what Dr. William Gonzaba started everywhere.
Dr. Bill, as his patients call him, turns 91 years old this week. He grew up on the South Side and remembers riding a horse to school.
While the South Side has undergone drastic changes, it has always been a part of this medical pioneer’s dream.
As a standout basketball and football player, San Antonio eventually became the site of Gonzaba’s passion.
“Coming from my background, when I started practice, there were no doctors on the South Side,” said Gonzaba.
He walks to the clinic a little slower these days, but these are still the hands that built the Gonzaba Medical Practice, and the mind that built the Gonzaba medical empire.
Gonzaba considers the South Side his barrio. His first practice was in a one-room house on Nogalitos Street in 1960.
For a time, Gonzaba would do everything from delivering babies to general surgery.
“I delivered so many babies. Really hits me here when I see them,” said Gonzaba.
Now there’s Gonzaba Medical, Gonzaba Urgent Care, Gonzaba Labs and Gonzaba Physical Therapy. He has almost 1000 employees, and that number is growing.
“The South Side is my spirit. This is where I started. Why?” Gonzaba asked. “Because the people from El Barrio, my neighborhood. They became my patients.”
Take a walk with Gonzaba, and you notice something else he’s built: loyalty. Dianne Gutierrez has worked with him for 20 years.
“I love it. I tell people, I drive 28 miles one way every day, and I did it the whole time because it’s a good place to work and they’re good to us.”
Gonzaba is a San Antonio original who built a legacy in a lab coat, who, even at 91 years old, still loves to see patients.
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Felicia Ray Owens
Felicia Ray Owens is a columnist, media founder, and cultural strategist who creates platforms where power meets lived truth. As the voice behind C4: Coffee. Cocktails. Culture. Conversation, her writing and commentary appear monthly in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung and across FROUSA Media.
A longtime advocate for community wellness and civic engagement, Felicia brings experience as a former Precinct Chair and former Chief Communications Officer of Indivisible Hill Country. Today, she leads narrative change and public dialogue through storytelling, activism, and curated healing spaces.
Learn more at FROUSA.org
