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Aggie Never Gave Up

Stephanie Cannon '06 January 20, 2015 11:30 AM

Dr. Mark Dirnberger ’85 has always been an Aggie. As a kid, he wore out his Aggie cap, his maroon T-shirt, and—sometimes—his friends’ patience with his exuberance and Aggie Spirit. His bedroom wall was held up by Aggie posters, football schedules and homemade signs of white poster board and a hand-drawn block ATM.

He made his college choice at age 10 and never wavered. He was an Aggie.

So, after he graduated high school with honors in 1981, he enrolled at A&M as a premed student.

After that—“it’s embarrassing to say,” he said, but “youth and immaturity got in my way.” Distractions are diverting, and, well, he fell for them, he said. His studies suffered. “Midway into my junior year, my father felt it was time for me to come back to Fort Worth,” he said.

He’d dug his own grave, he said. He was devastated. 

In 1986, he graduated from UTA with a degree in finance. He started working in the banking, consulting and accounting world for a prestigious firm, the only thing, though, he was extremely unhappy. “About seven years into that career, I had a heart-to-heart with my wife,” he said. Dirnberger still wanted to be a doctor. "Marti encouraged me to 'go for it' even though everyone else I consulted discouraged me."

So, he quit his finance job and went back to school. Working two jobs—he was a youth minister and held an undergrad internship in the surgery department at a local hospital—he completed the basics, got accepted into medical school, graduated in 2000 and completed his three years of residency in 2003. His medical practice in Arlington specializes in interventional pain management.

“But all along, I never forgot that I wanted my A&M degree and my Ring,” he said. “I’d wanted it since I was 10. It never went away.”

As the years passed, “I started thinking that it’s never going to happen,” he said.

It’s funny to look back and identify the catalysts of life change, he said, because his was a song. A couple of years ago, Dirnberger’s sister, Cori Stout ’91, introduced him to Granger Smith’s tune ‘We Bleed Maroon.’ 

“That triggered something in me,” he said, and suddenly he couldn’t stop thinking of finishing his Aggie degree. 

He spoke with his wife and children—ages 4 and 10. He talked with his parents, his partners in the medical practice and his patients. He checked with the surgical centers where he was committed. “Everyone was on board,” he said. 

So, he stepped away from his medical practice and, at age 51, re-enrolled at Texas A&M as a biology student. He completed all the online hours he could and moved to College Station last fall.

The courses were difficult, he said; Dirnberger hadn’t taken the prerequisites in years. The pressure was on. But it was the homesickness for his wife and young children that was the hardest. He missed birthdays and his wedding anniversary. But not finishing his Aggie degree the first time was his life’s regret. He couldn’t and wouldn’t stop the second time. Near commencement, he obsessively checked his grades. He knew they were most likely enough to graduate, but “I only had this one shot,” he said. He finished with a 4.0.

The morning of commencement, Dirnberger went to the Clayton W. Williams, Jr. Alumni Center to pick up his Aggie Ring. He’d missed the earlier Ring Day because his transcripts “were so old they weren’t on the computer,” he laughed. When he started back at A&M it was initially for his Aggie Ring. His hand had felt bare for his entire adult life, he said. It needed his Aggie Ring. But, once he earned the right to wear it, he realized something. “I wanted to be a former student,” he said. “Quitting after earning the Ring would have been a hollow victory,” he said.

As he sat waiting for his name to be called at the 2014 commencement, he stared at his Ring with his original Class year of '85 emblazoned upon it. The crowd was so large, he couldn’t find his family. He sat, head down, pulling their faces up in his memory, thinking of all the people who had supported him. He reflected that “after 30 years, when I didn’t think the semester would ever end, it’s over. I’ve done it. I’ve completed it,” he said. And he was proud.

Dirnberger takes medical students in his clinic. He’s always encouraged those students to dream big and go for their dream. “Because this really was a dream for me,” he said. “Some people would ask, ‘why would you go back and get another undergraduate degree. Maybe, until you’re an Aggie, you just don’t understand.” 



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