Love at first sight
by Nathaniel Miller
When a then-teenage Javier Oliva first saw the blond-haired girl working an information booth for her high school French club in November 1981, he almost twisted his neck turning to stare.
As captain of the Antonian College Preparatory High School basketball team, Oliva was used to the fast-paced sport and moving quickly. The girl’s striking beauty, however, stopped him in his tracks.
Sadly, he figured the moment would be fleeting.
“I thought I would never see this person again because I didn’t know who she was, but I knew she was beautiful,” said Oliva (M.S. ’87, J.D. ’90).
A month later, a friend of Oliva’s said there was this girl he had just met. She was going to be at the next basketball game.
Looking up in the stands, Oliva knew God and fate were on his side.
“I looked over and it was her,” he said. “It was the same girl who I had seen a month before, and I was just full of joy.”
That girl, Suzanne Dapra, and Javier Oliva soon started dating. They’ve now been married 38 years.
Suzanne Oliva, LL.M. (B.B.A. ’87, J.D. ’96), coming from a military family, applied to several universities, but chose St. Mary’s University after hearing great things about the campus. A year ahead of her, Javier Oliva began studying at St. Mary’s before transferring to finish his undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame.
Not deterred by distance, the two kept in contact as much as possible. This was done before the time of texting and FaceTime.
Javier Oliva bought phone cards to make long-distance calls (back when those calls were expensive) to chat with his girlfriend at least 10 minutes a day.
They wrote letters, mailing back and forth all the time. From her current-day office in the Albert B. Alkek Business Building, she can see Blume Library, where as a student she would find a cubicle to write him letters.
After graduating from Notre Dame in 1985, he returned to St. Mary’s to pursue his Master of Science in Public Administration. He graduated in 1987 and proposed to Suzanne Oliva during her senior year for her Accounting degree, and the two married in the spring.
The couple has four children — including two who are also St. Mary’s graduates, Stephen Oliva (B.S. ’15) and Christopher Oliva (B.A. ’18) — and three grandchildren.
“He really made it as easy as he could for me,” Suzanne Oliva said. “He would come back every summer, and then he would come back for spring and fall breaks, and holidays. Even though we did see each other quite a bit, we really got to know each other well.”
Both would attend the St. Mary’s University School of Law and work together for 10 years at Oliva, Saks, Garcia and Curiel.
Both are also professors — Suzanne Oliva at St. Mary’s as an Assistant Professor of Business Law in the Greehey School of Business and Practicing Faculty in the School of Law, and Javier Oliva as Professor of Instruction, Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
“Time allows our marriage to get even better,” Suzanne Oliva said. “Because even though our plates are full, we like to have lots of date nights.”
Even to this day, Javier Oliva will call at the beginning of the week in what Suzanne Oliva calls “Miss you Monday.”
“It’s the hardest day of the week because it’s the day after having spent a whole weekend with her,” Javier Oliva said. “I know that it’s distracting sometimes, because I have the pains of not being with her.”
Their faith and continued involvement in the community have been part of their relationship. For example, Javier Oliva gave welcome remarks at the School of Law’s annual Red Mass at San Fernando Cathedral in 2023.
“Thank God for St Mary’s University, where so many people can come here, work on building families and creating leaders in our community that give people hope and make San Antonio a very special place,” Javier Oliva said.
