Garvin was a village magistrate on the planet Barkon IV. After his wife died in 2369, he became a single parent with a daughter named Gia.
In 2370, he met a malfunctioning Lieutenant Commander Data who had been sent to retrieve radiation fragments from a Federation deep space probe that had crash landed on the planet. Garvin and Gia took Data into their home when the android wandered into their village with amnesia. After Garvin developed radiation poisoning from being exposed to fragments from the probe that Data had unwittingly carried in, he approved Data's investigation into the cause of the illness. He was later cured of the poisoning by Data. (TNG: "Thine Own Self")
Garvin was played by Michael Rothhaar.
The costume worn by Rothhaar was sold off at the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1]