Daniel Garza ‘91 MD ‘00, an assistant professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine and medical director for the San Francisco 49ers, passed away the evening of Oct. 15 at his home.

Garza mainly focused his research on preventing traumatic brain injury in athletes and taught undergraduate courses in the Human Biology program.

His most recent project revolved around fitting athletes with mouthpieces to measure the impact of collisions. He advocated for education among athletes and their parents about the potential for injury in youth-level sports and was an inspiration for his students.

“He was always really energetic and fun in class,” said Debha Amatya ‘14, a former student of Garza’s.

Garza wrote a letter of recommendation for Amatya, who is starting to apply to medical school.

“I was looking forward to telling him how the interviews were going,” he said.

“It’s just really shocking.”

Students are encouraged to seek help from grief resources on campus if they feel they need to at http://grief.stanford.edu/resources.html, or by calling Vaden Health Center’s Counseling and Psychological Services at (650) 723-3785. Support services are available to faculty and staff at the Help Center by calling (650) 723-4577.