Diane Lawson Martinez M.D.

It was with great shock and sadness this week that her family and friends learned of the death of Diane Lawson Martinez, MD, on February 12 from a sudden illness following a trip to New York. A psychiatrist in private practice in San Antonio for several decades, Diane did her undergraduate work at the University of Missouri and her medical and post-graduate training in Chicago, graduating the University of Illinois Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine, and completing her residency in psychiatry at Michael Reese Hospital and her psychoanalytic training at the Institute for Psychoanalysis. She also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Vermont College Writing Program and has published one novel and had just submitted a second at the time of her death. A Mid-Westerner by birth and upbringing, Diane had made San Antonio her home since 1984, when she came to the city to take a faculty position in Psychiatry at the U.T. Health Science Center. There, she met her husband, Cervando Martinez, also a psychiatrist. Their two children, Alejandro and Pilar, currently live in Austin and Houston, respectively. After their divorce, she and Cervando remained friends and partners in raising their children. Diane was a hard-working professional who also knew how to enjoy herself; she made friends easily and maintained them over the years, traveling with many of them as well as her family, to many different places around the world and enjoying the variety of experiences these trips offered. In recent years, her constant companion was Masoud Rasti, with whom she traveled frequently to Europe and, particularly Turkey, which they both loved and visited often. She was an avid reader, writer, and movie-goer, as well as an accomplished editor for her many literary friends. Deeply rooted in family, she was always a supportive and endlessly encouraging mother to her two children. In addition to Masoud, and her children, Alejandro and Pilar, she is survived by her sister, Gail and her husband, David, and their two sons, Aaron and Cameron, and by her brother, John and his wife, Melissa, and their children, Kerrie, Kelsey and Matthew. There will be a memorial service at Porter Loring North at 2102 N Loop 1604 E in San Antonio on Friday, February 15 at 6 p.m. followed by a short reception. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that gifts in her memory be made to the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the U.T Health Science Center, where she served on the board for many years.