MAGIS | Remembering Carlos Garcia '89

(This article first appeared in the Belen Jesuit Alumni Magazine, Summer 2020 edition)

Second to only Men for Others, no term is more fundamental in Belen’s ethos than “MAGIS.” For all its popularity, however, few people are quite sure what it means. Some define MAGIS with words such as excellence, generosity, and service. We define MAGIS with the Society of Jesus’ unofficial motto, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (AMDG), which means “For the Greater Glory of God.”  The principle at the center of AMDG leads those in the service of God to make decisions and choose options that result in the greater universal good. We as Jesuit educated men are to choose the path that makes the greatest communal impact. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” St. Ignatius would have called this the MAGIS. 

 

 

Please allow us to share a bit about Carlos Francisco Garcia, a Belen graduate from the great class of 1989, whom we loved as a brother and who lived a life that exemplified the essence of MAGIS. Carlos, a well-known and charismatic presence in the Belen community and South Florida generally, passed away in December 2019 after a lengthy and courageous battle with brain cancer.  For those that knew Carlos, it was readily apparent that his family, his faith, his friends, and his commitment to service were what he most fundamentally treasured.  

 

Carlos entered Belen in 1983 as a very talkative and curious 7th grader.  Those attributes fueled Carlos’ varied interests in sports and social activities while in Belen, as well as in his post-Belen years. While at Belen, Carlos played on the soccer, tennis, and golf teams and was an active participant in several clubs and organizations including Key Club, Alpha Club, and Beta Club, where he served as its President. After high school, Carlos earned a B.A. in Accounting from the University of Miami and an MBA from FIU. After, while working as a CPA in the Deloitte & Touche Audit Department, Carlos was also an adjunct professor at UM, where he shared his love of accounting and intellectual exploration with countless students.  Carlos loved to succeed, but more than anything, he loved helping others succeed. 

 

True to his inquisitive and tireless nature, he also served as a radio DJ and owned a live music venue where he was able to share his love of music, especially jazz and funk, with a generation of Miamians who had never been to a live music show or heard of the bands who continually performed there, coming from various parts of the US. Ultimately, Carlos became the managing partner of Hancock, Askew & Co., an accounting firm where Carlos formed treasured relationships and provided invaluable counsel to a long list of valued clients.

 

One of Carlos’ greatest passions was serving the community and participating in various charitable and service organizations like Kiwanis of Little Havana (where he proudly served for 20 years), the Orange Bowl Committee, the Coral Gables Community Foundation (where he served as Chair Emeritus), the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Florida. Carlos proudly promoted these organizations and their impact on our community. If you ever received an email from Carlos and looked at his signature block, you quickly realized that the list of the organizations he was affiliated with was likely longer than the actual email he was sending to you. The Carnaval on the Mile experience featuring jazz, funk and rock music performances along Miracle Mile in Coral Gables was his brainchild and endures as part of his considerable legacy. His motivation to serve was never to quench a thirst for recognition, but rather his relentless drive to help others. 

 

Carlos placed a tremendous value on education and was so appreciative of the education he received at Belen. When Carlos saw a need for scholarship funds to assist our community’s youth to reach their dreams of higher education, he founded the Garcia Perseverance Scholarship Fund. When he felt our community lacked sufficient resources to educate our children about eating disorders, he founded Stand-Up and Eliminate Eating Disorders. Carlos would make people feel loved, supported, informed, and empowered.

 

In December 2017, Carlos was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The prognosis was bleak, but Carlos did not succumb to this disease without a fight. Armed with the unending support and dedication of his beloved wife, Debbie, and a supporting cast of family members and friends, Carlos challenged this terrible disease with advanced scientific methods and, more importantly, with reliance upon his faith.  

 

 

Rather than wallow in his condition, Carlos did what came naturally to him – he relied on his faith in God and reached out to those he knew to form a group to pray for and assist those who were similarly stricken with cancer.  What initially started out as a few people who circled in his living room, grew to 200 plus visitors congregating on a weekly basis in his backyard praying the rosary and offering intentions for the afflicted. He went from a faithful believer to fearless prophet in openly sharing his faith while fostering it in others around him. Many tears were shed at these “prayer gettys”, but none by Carlos.  He was strong for others; he was a man for others. His resolve to fight was only outmatched by his faith that God had a plan for him and that his life and death would not be without meaning, but rather would leave an enduring legacy of strength, positivity, and love. Although cancer would ultimately take Carlos from us, it did not prevail. Cancer strengthened Carlos’ relationships with his family, friends, and God. Carlos’ diagnosis brought him closer to God in ways that no one could have envisioned and, in turn, helped others around him come closer to God in ways they never had.

 

Toward the end of his fight, Carlos recognized that his time with his family was limited and as a gift to his children, he wrote them a letter wherein he laid out the principles of the MAGIS that he lived by:

“People are not perfect, (so) don’t assume they are. You catch more bees with honey. Don’t focus on the smaller, trivial things; instead, look at the big picture and how you can get to that. Take ownership of your actions. Be accountable. Work hard and feel good about what you are doing. Do not do things for recognition. Do things because it is the right thing to do. Make meaningful contributions to causes that matter most to you. Spend time helping the causes. God has always asked us to give the three T’s—time, talent, and treasure. The latter to me is the least important. It is much more fulfilling giving our time than money. Overall, I want you to think of others and how you make them feel by your actions and words and try to improve that.”  

 

That is how Carlos lived his life. He was deeply faithful, he was unendingly positive, he had a thirst for knowledge, he loved fearlessly and enriched the lives of everyone around him – in concept and in deeds, Carlos Francisco Garcia truly embodied the way of the MAGIS.