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Your Catholic Neighbor: Narciso Macia
Cuban-American engineers his way to success
By Joyce Coronel, The Catholic Sun
November 15, 2007
Narciso Macia will never forget the first time he engineered something.
At the time, the Arizona State University associate professor in the electronic systems department was a clever 12-year-old boy living in Castro’s Cuba.
He stumbled across a gadget that to others may have seemed useless, but to him held the promise of something practical.
“It had an arm and every time you pressed the lever it kept track,” Macia recalled.
Intrigued, he managed to hook it up to a bike, creating a homemade odometer. Little did he know he would one day share this passion for designing and building contraptions with students thousands of miles away in Arizona.
By 1966, Macia’s parents made the decision to get the family out of Cuba. They sent their eldest son, Narciso, then 14, to Spain. Three months later he joined an aunt and uncle who were already living in Miami. Although he didn’t speak any English, Macia began ninth grade and tried his best to keep up with the other students.
“They put me in a math class, but because the class had already started, I was lost. They took me out of math and put me in art.”
He had a science class that was challenging, too. “I studied an entire weekend for a test, but there were so many words I didn’t know on the test that I had to retake the class that summer.”
Macia’s parents and younger brother were able to leave Cuba in 1968 and the family relocated to Texas. In all, Macia attended five different high schools, ultimately conquering English and succeeding in his studies. “At that age, you’re very pliable,” he explained with a laugh.
After receiving both an undergraduate and graduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, Macia came to Tempe to pursue a doctorate. He launched Control Systems Innovation, an engineering, design and consulting business in 1988.
He enjoyed running his own business, but life took a new direction after he and his wife began a family.
“I saw myself as an engineer in a small company, but God kind of leads you in [different] ways,” he says of his career change to the world of academics.
Macia says it was a financial struggle owning and operating a small business and that health insurance became an issue. After his wife, Donna, required a second Caesarean-section delivery to give birth, their insurance company informed them that future pregnancies wouldn’t be covered under the policy.
“I got into teaching for financial reasons and it was just part time. I had hoped to get a grant to do more research.”
Grant money never came through for Macia, however, and he stuck with teaching engineering. A loss to the business world became a blessing to college students beginning in 1990.
Macia taught at ASU’s main campus in Tempe for six years, then switched to a new campus when his entire department was moved. Active in the City of the Lord covenant community and the All Saints Catholic Newman Center for many years, he and his family relocated to the southeast Valley where they are members of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Queen Creek.
Today, Macia is an associate professor of electronic systems at ASU’s growing Polytechnic Campus. A glance at the list of some of the recent courses he teaches reveals that the man who once struggled with academics now teaches classes with titles most people would find daunting: “Instrumentation,” “Digital Real-time Control” and “PLCS, Sensors and Actuators.” He’s also the faculty advisor to the John Paul II Newman Center.
What do you like most about being Catholic?
I like that being a Catholic is the distillation of thousands of years of people seeking God. It is not just something that someone thought of a few years ago. It’s lifetimes that have contributed to that richness of our faith. I also like the fact that it has a very solid foundation and is willing to take a stand even though that stand may not be popular.
How does your faith affect your work?
I always try to share with students to do things with the best of their ability. If they choose the high road rather than the low road, they are going to have fewer regrets.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
I really like the close interaction I have with students. I’m teaching three classes this semester. I also like to encourage students to pursue their entrepreneurial inclinations.
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