 He was admitted to the doctoral program in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley as a Regent's Fellow in Linguistics and as a Stanley Tasheira Scholar in 1967 and completed the PhD degree in 1970.Gonzalez returned to the Philippines in 1971 where he was chosen to become the chairman of the Humanities Department of De La Salle College and was promoted to Academic Vice President from 1971 to 1978.Upon the sudden death of then De La Salle University President- Brother H. Gabriel Connon FSC, Gonzalez became the Acting President.