In memoriam: A look back at those who died in 2022

Jan. 1—Former City Councilor Edward "Gonzo" Gonzales is a big part of the reason the Santuario de Guadalupe is still standing.

Matt King was one of the co-founders of Meow Wolf and helped make the interactive art exhibit what it is today.

Javier Gonzales was Santa Fe's first openly gay mayor.

Glenys Carl eased the pain of those who were suffering.

And there were others.

Santa Fe lost many good people in 2022. Some had roots in Santa Fe going back to the early Spanish settlers or the Native Americans who lived here before then; others were drawn to the Land of Enchantment as adults and fell in love with the City Different.

Former City Councilors Carlos Gallegos and Vincent "Porky" Lithgow also died last year. We lost artists such as Tigre Mashaal-Lively and Shontez "Taz" Morris. We lost volunteers like Michaelann Perea, and educators like Melvin Perez and Jim Ledyard. Others, such as Española city planner Muhammad Afzaal Hussain and Blake's Lotaburger employee Cypress Garcia, were lost to senseless acts of violence that are unfortunately all too common in

New Mexico.

Here we celebrate all of their lives, and the lives of others who died in 2022.

Leonardo "Leo" Torrez, 58, Jan. 11; and Leonard Torrez, 37, Jan. 12

The Torrezes were more than just father and son — people who knew them said they were best friends.

The two teamed up to coach volleyball and girls basketball at their alma mater, Mesa Vista High School in Ojo Caliente, for the last two seasons of their lives.

"Listening to people talk about Leo and Leonard, they talk about them being good coaches and motivating them," said former coach Joey Trujillo. "There are people who talk about all the positives they brought to the school and what they did for the kids."

The two contracted COVID-19 within days of each other in mid-December and died a day apart from complications.

Adrian Bustamante, 87, Jan. 17

Bustamante, the former director of the state Cultural Affairs Department and executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, led community members in exploring their past as descendants of colonial settlers in New Mexico. He also was a contributing member of La Academia, a Northern

New Mexico think tank for Chicano culture and heritage, and an academic, historian and counselor.

Bustamante spent 34 years as a teacher and administrator in higher education, including serving as dean of students at Santa Fe Community College. He served as president of the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents and was the first curator of El Rancho de las Golondrinas Museum. He was a member of the New Mexico Council for the Humanities, the New Mexico Space Museum board and the New Mexico Quincentenary Commission. He also was a founding member of the Board of the Santa Fe Trail Association, and board member and chairman of the history task force of Santa Fe's Cuartocentinario (400th) celebration.

"If there was something pertaining to history, I would run it by him to make sure I got it right," said his friend, author and historian Ana Pacheco.

Antonio Posa, 88, Jan. 11; and Carmen Posa, 79, Jan. 27

The Posas took over the El Merendero restaurant and tamale factory from Carmen's parents, Aurora and José Lujan, and renamed it Posa's El Merendero Tamale Factory & Restaurant, operating it for many years.

Carmen was born in Mexico but moved to Santa Fe with her family as a young girl; Antonio was born in Spain and was competing in Mexico as a professional wrestler when the couple met and married in 1962.

Their son, Jeff Posa, said his parents were advocates for immigrants and assisted many of their employees as they worked to get established in Santa Fe and become U.S. citizens — sometimes serving as godparents to the workers' children.

"She used to fight for the little man," he said. "Whenever she saw somebody being mistreated, she would always step in and try and make things better for him."

Robert Jones, 90, Feb. 1

Robert Jones played lead clarinet in the Santa Fe Concert Band for years, performing jazz standards and show tunes for the community on the Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

"He was a great musician and composer," said Greg Heltman, who has served as the band's musical director since 1984. "And he really invested himself in the community."

Jones, a man with a longtime love of music, served as a performer, conductor, composer and music educator for decades. An Iowa native, he moved to Santa Fe with his wife in 1996 and joined the

Santa Fe Concert Band. He played first chair clarinet, leading the band's other clarinet players, until the couple moved to Mexico in 2019.

Matthew Allen, 57, Feb. 3

Allen, who was born developmentally disabled and was nonverbal, became a Santa Fe institution over the decades, well known for walking the city's streets, visiting the Plaza and the city's parks and expressing his love for music by dancing to concerts.

"People are attracted to him. Homeless people will come to him," said his father, Jim Allen, shortly before his death. "They like him. People from all over. ... I guess they see hope, maybe something they lack. People will approach when we're talking in the park and ask, 'Mind if I walk with you?' "

Matthew's parents said their walks with him introduced them to a cross-section of friendly Santa Feans and bolstered their faith in humanity.

"I've always been a people person, but I didn't know that there was so much love and so much kindness until I started walking Matthew," said his mother, Angie Allen. "That's when I saw that people want to help. Sometimes people get scared because they don't know if they should approach. They don't know, but ... a lot of them did."

Javier Gonzales, 55, Feb. 9

Gonzales served as Santa Fe's mayor from 2014-18. He was the son of former Mayor George Gonzales and grandson of former State Auditor Juan Vigil and burst onto the political scene in his 20s, winning a seat on the Santa Fe County Commission in 1995. He served two terms and was named its chairman.

Once a rising star within the state Democratic Party and the city's first openly gay mayor, he eschewed a second mayoral run to spend more time with his two daughters as the position shifted to a full-time role following a change to the city charter.

He gained wider fame during his term after reaffirming the city's stance as a sanctuary city in defiance of the Trump administration's increasingly stringent immigration policies. He made multiple appearances on Fox News as an advocate for sanctuary cities, bringing a national spotlight to Santa Fe.

"He certainly was a progressive, but that was just part of who he really was," said City Councilor Singe Lindell. "He was about caring about people and feeling that everyone should have the opportunity, and it should be an equal opportunity."

Stanley "Rosebud" Rosen, 87, Feb. 21

Rosen, a banjo-playing, red beret-wearing labor historian and advocate, left a long legacy of activism. While he spent much of his career in New Jersey and Illinois, Rosen dedicated most of his retired life to labor organizing and history in New Mexico after moving to Santa Fe in the mid-1990s to be with his partner, Sandra "Sandy" Herzon.

His work here included serving on the Northern New Mexico Central Labor Council and, in 2004, pushing for a higher "living" wage while working on a citywide roundtable. He also was integral to developing an oral history project called The Working People's History of New Mexico to capture the stories of labor movements across the state. The collection is held in the University of New Mexico's Digital Repository.

"Many who knew Stan would agree that he was a troublemaker but truly a troublemaker for good," said Rosen's colleague Diane Pinkey, an interviewer for the project. "He believed it only fair and just to include labor history in the collective history of our country and world."

Robert Duran, 43, March 2

Duran, a Santa Fe police officer, was killed in a crash as he pursued a fleeing vehicle driving the wrong way on Interstate 25 following what later turned out to be a false report of a kidnapping.

An Artesia native, Duran was a relative latecomer to law enforcement and worked as a low-voltage technician in Albuquerque before joining the department in 2015. However, being a police officer had been his lifelong dream, said Kyle Elliot, Duran's longtime law enforcement partner and onetime police academy classmate.

"He was willing to put his life on the line to do his job and protect the citizens of Santa Fe," said Elliot. "It was something he did every single day without question."

Frank Lovato, 62, March 2

Lovato, a retired Las Vegas, N.M., firefighter, was killed in the same I-25 crash as Duran. People who knew him described him as devoted to his friends, family and community.

"He was a faithful man," the Rev. Rob Yaksich said during his standing-room-only funeral Mass. "God needed another angel. We turn to our faith and recognize something in particular about Frank. He lived as a saint."

Tomás Romero, 75, March 12

Romero, an advocate for cultural preservation in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Taos counties, was know to many through his work with El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, where he served as board president until his death, and the federally designated Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area.

A Santa Rosa native and a descendant of Northern

New Mexico's 17th century Spanish settlers, Romero became involved with El Museo in 1998 and was integral to helping transform the old warehouse in what is now the Railyard District into the nonprofit cultural hub it is today, bringing his savvy with accounting, finance and systems to the work.

"He was a very curious combination of many things," sad his son, Adrian Romero. "He had the financial background, he had the managerial grasp and was very artistic, a great singer and had some talent with visual arts."

Shontez "Taz" Morris, 43, March 16

Morris, who lived in Santa Fe since 2013, was well known in the Santa Fe community for her work facilitating and promoting arts shows at Meow Wolf and as a security guard.

"She said she could express herself more with her art here in Santa Fe," said her mother, Anita Bennett. "She felt more at peace, away from a lot of negative things. When I called her to talk, she used to say, 'Mom, don't worry — I'm surrounded by people who love me.' "

In a 2019 interview with New Mexico Entertainment Magazine, Morris said her work "portrays sensuality, spirituality and self-confidence that straddles the borders of racial issues and contradicts how the Black woman is portrayed in today's media. ... All of my pieces depict the female in sensual goddess and extraterrestrial form."

Karen Webb, 70, April 4

Webb was a longtime Santa Fean who seemed to know everybody in town through her decades of work as a server at the Plaza Cafe.

A New Jersey native who moved to Santa Fe in 1971, her restaurant work brought her national attention when she became one of the servers profiled in Vanessa Vassar's 2002 documentary American Waitress.

Webb was a familiar presence to anyone walking into the downtown Plaza Cafe. She welcomed them with a smile, a cup of coffee — regardless of whether they wanted one — and her familiar greeting, "How ya' doin', sweetie?"

"She dedicated a lot of her life to helping people," said Webb's granddaughter, Alexandria Hernandez.

Sonja Lujan, 82, April 10

Lujan was the mother of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who often referred to her as a tireless advocate for disabled children and an inspiration for her career.

"My mother was truly one of a kind," Lujan Grisham said in a statement after her mother's death. "Like so many caring and devoted mothers, she became a dedicated advocate for my sister Kimberly and children with disabilities across the country simply because there was no other choice."

The governor's sister, who was physically disabled, died at age 21. Sonja's efforts to find a prekindergarten program for Kimberly in the early 1970s helped fuel the start of New Vistas, a 51-year-old local nonprofit that works to provide an array of services for people with disabilities.

"She worked to right every wrong and fought for the best standard of care, refusing to back down when she knew there was more that could be done," Lujan Grisham added. "Her tenacity and determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges has inspired me every single day of my adult life."

Vincent Lithgow, 84, May 10

Lithgow — widely known as "Porky" — was a 13th-generation New Mexican, a skilled politician, "people person" and committed public servant who aimed to make the world a better place than he found it, friends, family and former colleagues said.

He served two terms on the Santa Fe City Council in the 1970s and was elected again in 1980. He also worked as a chief administrative officer for the city of Albuquerque and as a Cabinet secretary of the General Services Department under Gov. Jerry Apodaca in the 1970s.

He was a very good councilor," said former Santa Fe Mayor Sam Pick, who remembered Lithgow as a conservative Democrat. "He was very traditional."

Carlos Gallegos, 87, May 16

Gallegos, a Santa Fe city councilor in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also worked in state government positions for about 30 years, including in the State Land Office, from which he retired in 1982. He grew up in the Cleveland, N.M., area; as a young man, he had been in the Army Reserves, and his wife said he spent eight months on assignment in Louisiana at the time of the Cuban missile crisis.

Pick remembered him as someone who stuck to the rules, recounting a story of a time when he and some allies placed a large, heavy sculpture of a buffalo in the median on Paseo de Peralta in the late 1980s as a tribute to the city's arts community. Gallegos was not pleased, as approval of the process hadn't gone through City Hall.

Pick said he felt it was better in this case to ask for forgiveness than permission. Eventually opponents like Gallegos had the buffalo removed. Gallegos "was a very traditional, stick-to-the-rules type guy," Pick said. "You had to admire Carlos because he wanted to do what's right."

Glenys Carl, 84, June 4

Glenys Carl devoted a large chunk of her life to easing the suffering of those who had few health care and hospice options. Upon her arrival in Santa Fe, she served as a caregiver in a hospice, often taking care of those stricken with AIDS. Spurred in her work by a devastating traumatic brain injury suffered by her son, Scott, who was injured in 1987 in Australia, she created Coming Home Connection in 2005 to provide free and reduced-cost care for those near the end of their lives.

In 2017, she opened Scott's House, a hospice that provided a residence and free care. For both facilities, Carl helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to make them a reality.

"Glenys' vision is to take care of people," said her partner, John Bishop. "Her last words were: 'No fighting.' She was completely against fighting and wars of any kind. It was a message to the planet."

David Salman, 65, June 5

Salman, a local horticulturalist credited with revolutionizing the practice of gardening in the unique desert landscape of Northern New Mexico and beyond, was known to many as an expert voice on horticulture and "water-wise" landscape design in Santa Fe and also was recognized for his capabilities an educator and business owner.

Salman constantly sought out plant varieties from near and far that would thrive in the Santa Fe area. He introduced several popular plants to the local market including a variety of agastache or "humming bird mint" and a type of salvia called Raspberry Delight, a cold-hardy plant with sweet-smelling raspberry-colored flowers. Salman traveled as far as South Africa searching for plants that could survive the cold winters of the West.

"That was a hallmark of David's approach: He was always looking for quality material and unusual stuff that other people weren't offering," said Salman's first nursery manager, Tracy Neal. "Right off the bat, I thought, 'I want to work for this guy.' "

Kurt Markus, 75, June 12

Markus, who lived in Montana for most of his life and moved to Santa Fe in 2013, was well known for his black-and-white photography and affinity for the darkroom. His photographs were featured in a myriad of magazines and ad campaigns, including fashion stills for Vogue and Vanity Fair, and advertisements for companies like BMW and Nike. However, his love for cowboys and his pictures of the American West brought him the most acclaim.

"Kurt caught the spirit of the American West like no one else has," said photographer Bruce Weber, one of Markus' lifelong friends. "He left behind a lasting record of the West that we won't see done in quite the same way again. He had so much respect for that world — not just the cowboys themselves, but the horses, the saddles and gear, the landscapes. He captured it all."

Jim Ledyard, 75, June 25

Ledyard was a lifelong educator who served as the first principal of the New Mexico School for the Arts and head learner at Monte del Sol Charter School.

Ledyard studied English language and literature at Princeton University, where he began mentoring high school students who might not otherwise have considered college as an option. One of his friends said this may be what led him to a teaching career. He went on to a nearly 40-year career as an educational leader, and he was hired as NMSA's first principal in 2010.

Joey Chavez, who taught theater at NMSA for 12 years, said Ledyard was a "gracious person" who loved both the education world and the arts.

"He had a deep feeling for art, not just theater," Chavez said.

Matt King, 37, July 9

King was the creative director of Meow Wolf, one of its co-founders and a big part of making it what it is today.

"Without Matt, we would not be where we are," Meow Wolf co-founder and former CEO Vince Kadlubek said. "He was this pure energy that drove us. Matt's role was his creative spirit. It was a fire that burned, that lit everybody else and fueled everything we did."

King, who grew up in Arlington, Texas, arrived in Santa Fe in 2007. He and original Meow Wolf member Quinn Tincher set the tone for the fledging art collective in 2008 with their first immersive art experience Meowzors, staged at Meow Wolf's first home near the intersection of Cerrillos Road and Second Street. King was the lead designer of several prominent exhibits at each of Meow Wolf's three locations, including the 35-foot-tall Cathedral at Convergence Station in Denver and the Desert Chill Zone at Omega Mart, and the project lead for Glowquarium in Santa Fe.

"He was the one who always wanted to be as big and inspiring as we could be," Kadlubek said. "When I was CEO, he said, 'We have to do Denver; we have to do Las Vegas.' It was Matt's total belief that drove us there."

J. Patrick Lannan Jr., 83, July 27

Lannan's name is tied to a long-running series of readings and events that gave a wide range of authors, poets, scholars, cultural activists and thinkers a chance to connect with people who they might otherwise not reach. That "Reading and Conversations" series, still active at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, drew tens of thousands of people over the past few decades. Bob Martin, who ran the Lensic for years, called Lannan an "extraordinary man" whose work with the Santa Fe series was "transformational."

"So many thousands and thousands of people experienced some of the greatest poets and writers and thinkers of our time," Martin said. "I don't think many communities in the country get to experience that."

Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, Aug. 1

Muhammad Afzaal Hussain didn't grow up in Española or even have a chance to live there for one day of his life. Still, the young man became a standout in the community.

A native of Pakistan, Hussain spent a year working as the planning and land use director of the Northern New Mexico city and grew to love it. He was planning to move into a historic home owned by the city, until he was shot to death, one of several Muslim men murdered in Albuquerque over the course of the summer.

"He always had a smile," said Española Mayor John Ramon Vigil. "He was a pillar of our community. He became one of us."

Hussain was also a prominent student leader at the University of New Mexico and volunteered for U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury's congressional campaign.

James Evanson, 75, and Lisa Evanson, 67, Aug. 13

The Evansons were killed when their single-engine plane crashed while attempting to make an emergency landing on a road in central Illinois. Local authorities said the plane, which was having engines troubles, "heroically navigated between vehicles on a roadway before striking a building" in Hanna City, Ill.

James Evanson was an artist and in the functional art movement, creating works with a utilitarian purposes. His intricate glass sculptures were eye-catching, and he also worked with other materials, designing everything from chairs to lighting. Over the decades, his work was displayed in galleries around the world, including the Great Design/World Exhibition in Nagoya, Japan, and the Oslo Museum of Applied Art in Oslo, Norway.

The couple married in 1984 and went on to open a design and art studio together in New York. They built their Santa Fe home in 2008; it was featured in the Western Art & Architecture magazine in 2018.

Melvin Perez, 71, Aug. 16

Perez was a star basketball player at St. Michael's High School and Sam Houston State University who went on to become a celebrated math teacher at various schools around Santa Fe. He also stayed involved in sports, spending years as the official scorekeeper for boys and girls basketball games at Santa Fe High School and coaching softball there when his daughters attended school in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

"He was tough, but tough in a good way because he wanted the best from you, and if he didn't get it, he'd let you know," said David Rodriguez, a former student of Perez's who played subvarsity basketball under him at St. Michael's more than four decades ago. "He got your attention as a coach, but I'll tell you this: He was one hell of a math teacher. You didn't dare show up to his class unprepared."

Former Santa Fe High and

St. Michael's athletic director Tom Manning, who was a former classmate of Perez's, remembered him as one of the best athletes in school history.

"Out of all that, I think he might have enjoyed being a math teacher the most," Manning said. "He was a great athlete, but he never really talked about that. He did love teaching, though."

Cypress Garcia, 22, Aug. 16

Garcia, who worked at Blake's Lotaburger in Española, was shot and killed during a late-night robbery. His brother Cyress was also working there at the time; the robber shot at him too but missed.

The Garcias had been through a lot in the few years leading up to Cypress' death. Their father died in 2016, and the brothers were taken in by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families department and went to live with one of their aunts. When Cypress got a bit older, he moved in with his older sister, Unique Peña, and became a constant presence in the lives of his nephews.

"He took care of him [and] was a big role model in his life," Peña said. "He took him to school, picked him up, did everything with him, took him to concerts [and] encouraged him to do good."

Cyress Garcia remembered his brother as someone who loved life. He said his brother loved to travel and always took care of his family.

"I just tried being there for him, and I showed him everything, and he showed me everything," Cyress Garcia said. "He is the biggest brother I can have."

Richard Serrano, 61, Aug. 31

Serrano, a longtime member of Santa Fe's arts community, chose to go through a medically assisted death after 16 years of living with muscular dystrophy.

"Considering the circumstances, you know, I think of how strong and how brave he was," said his cousin, Ronda Bodewaldt. "I looked at him on one of the days prior to that day, and I just told him, 'You are the captain of your own ship, and you are making a decision that can't be easy, but I support you 100%.' "

Over the years, Richard had his work displayed in many local galleries and museums, including El Museo Cultural De Santa Fe. He featured straw appliqué work at the Traditional Spanish Market and won multiple Best in Fine Crafts awards for his glass work at the Contemporary Spanish Market in the early 2000s. He was also an avid biker before his illness; his brother Jacques remembers he started to show early signs of it when he was training to get back into racing mountain bikes and couldn't move his foot off his bike's pedal.

"He couldn't unclick his right foot, and he was like, 'What's going on?' " Jacques said. "And that was the first sign of the disease."

Carlo Gislimberti, 77, Aug. 31

A native of northern Italy, Gislimberti moved to Taos in the late 1970s and became locally famous for his expertise as a mushroom hunter and the mushroom dishes he prepared at his Taos restaurants, Casa Cordova and later Villa Fontana.

"His cream of wild mushroom soup and other mushroom-based delicacies are unmatched," according to a 2003 Mother Earth News article. "Gislimberti, an artist who believes that art and cooking go hand in hand, fits right in here."

Being a restaurateur in Taos led him to form friendships with many artists, who encouraged him to display his paintings in his restaurant and invited him to participate in art shows. Gislimberti moved to Santa Fe and opened an art gallery in 2006. He presented three shows of Southwestern paintings during a trip to his native Italy in 2008. His ex-wife, Siobhan Gislimberti, said he was a prolific painter and "constantly evolving with his art," his subjects ranging from landscapes and still lifes to people and portraits. "I think you would often see him in Santa Fe under a red canopy, painting en plein air [outdoors]," she said.

Michaelann Perea, 35, Sept. 5

Perea died after she was struck by a vehicle on Interstate 40 near Clines Corners while participating in a charity bicycling fundraiser. She was a dedicated volunteer — she served as chairwoman of the Santa Fe Community Services Committee, was a board member for the Santa Fe Children's Museum and was one of the most active members of the Rotary Club of Santa Fe.

"She was so dynamic and cheerful," said Rotary Club member Deborah Simon. "She just put a smile on your face whenever you saw her."

While at the Rotary Club, she volunteered for Pancakes on the Plaza, was a part of multiple committees and was named Outstanding Rotarian of the Year in 2021. She also played an integral role in creating the Children's Museum's mobile museum and was starting new projects with Rotary Clubs in El Paso and northern Mexico.

"Michaelann was a person who never said no," said Rotary Club of Santa Fe Director Carolyn Moore. "She made suggestions of how to make everybody better [and] make the club better. It's just heartbreaking."

Tigre Mashaal-Lively, 37, Oct. 1

Mashaal-Lively, a queer Santa Fe artist, dancer and activist who spoke up for the Black and transgender communities, had various murals and sculptures exhibited across the globe, including at the Lightning in a Bottle and Electric Forest music festivals.

One of their last projects was Facing the Fearbeast, a sculpture of a giant, black dragon-like creature staring down a small child that made its debut at Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nev., in late August.

"Tigre had such a zest for life and such an ability to connect with people at such a deep level," said Mashaal-Lively's mother, Linda Marshall. "Nobody that crossed paths with them ever forgot who they were."

Marshall said though Mashaal-Lively was the type of person who was always laughing and joking, they would also find themselves in some dark places.

"I want to acknowledge that they took their own life," Marshall said. "I think Tigre struggled with a sense of unworthiness for various reasons, some of which I think are inherited trauma."

John "Jack" Hasted, 83, Oct. 20

Hasted, spent over 40 years teaching English, creative writing and other humanities courses at the College of Santa Fe. He also served in various capacities, including as captain, in the Turquoise Trail Volunteer Fire District from the late 1960s into the mid-1980s and was one of the first responders to arrive at the Penitentiary of New Mexico during the deadly February 1980 prison riot.

A native of Oil City, Pa., Hasted moved to Santa Fe in the late 1960s to take a job with Santa Fe Public Schools. He fell in love with the region, said his wife Judith Brito Hasted, and also fell in love with teaching everything he learned about it to others.

"Everything Southwest, everything Northern New Mexico was like a magnet to him," she said.

Edward "Gonzo" Gonzales, 87, Oct. 31

Gonzales, who served on the Santa Fe City Council and the board of directors for El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, was remembered by those who knew him as the life of the party, a jokester who made everyone laugh and a committed public servant.

Gonzales' kids recalled how their father was always doing things for his community like helping build parade floats or decorate the Plaza for Fiesta. He was also part of the Caballeros de Vargas, a religious and cultural fraternal organization. Perhaps one of his greatest accomplishments was his work to preserve the historic Santuario de Guadalupe, which was slated to be demolished until he and the Guadalupe Historic Foundation stepped in to save it.

"He was always doing something; even well into his 80s, he was always doing projects," said his son, Lawrence Gonzales. "He would be that guy that was ready to go at 8 o'clock [in the morning] with all his tools."

Eloy Jeantete, 94, Nov. 6

Jeantete, a Korean War veteran, spent decades serving Taos, including more than 15 years on the Town Council in the 1970s and '80s. He served several terms as mayor after that. Friends of his said his accomplishments included lobbying to get a veterans cemetery established in Taos, helping to feed the poor during Christmas and creating the Taos Library. "When I became mayor, I dedicated it, but it was really him and his council who were behind the new library," said former state Rep. Fred Peralta, who succeeded Jeantete as mayor.

Descended from French fur trappers who arrived in the 1820s, Jeantete had deep roots in Taos. The Taos News named Jeantete its Citizen of the Year in 2002, and he served on its Tradiciones focus group for more than a decade. In a Taos News story that year, Jeantete is quoted saying, "When people ask me, 'Who are you related to?' I tell them I'm related to everybody in Taos County. We're all one family.' "

Tom Fiorina, 83, Nov. 19

Fiorina, a longtime Santa Fe Municipal Court judge, may have been best known for his tradition of forgiving parking tickets in exchange for turkey and food donations that helped the city's poor on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Fiorina's wife, Caryn Fiorina, said Turkey Day was a natural outgrowth of the judge's generosity — and innovation.

"I remember the love and caring," she said. "Everybody was just so joyous. It was such a community event that brought people together. He was amazing that way. He thought outside the box for sure; he was one creative guy."

A Santa Fe native, Fiorina was a teacher before going to law school. He served three terms as a municipal court judge in the 1980s and '90s.

Joseph Valdes, 92, Nov. 20

Valdes was mayor from 1972-76. Those that knew the former Santa Fe mayor remember him as a self-made man who commanded respect wherever he went.

"If anybody had a shortlist of the most respected citizens of this town in the last few years, he'd be on the top; that's the kind of guy he was," said Sam Pick, Valdes' mayoral successor and lifelong friend. "He was proud of his heritage, and he loved Santa Fe. ... He was an iconic guy."

Valdes was a founding member of Los Caballeros de Vargas, a fraternal organization that once oversaw the annual Fiesta de Santa Fe reenactment of Don Diego de Vargas' recapture of Santa Fe. He was also part of the planning commission that adopted the Historic Styles Ordinance written by John Gaw Meem in 1957.

Kathleen Abeles, 77, Dec. 22

Abeles was born and grew up in Chicago and moved to Santa Fe in 1975. She worked as a computer consultant while serving as a director at the Bank of

Santa Fe and went on to be a member — and later chairwoman — of Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center's board of trustees. She also served on the board for La Familia Medical Center, as its president from 2006-08. Her daughter Liza Lutzker said her mother served as the only woman on the Bank of Santa Fe's 15-person board of directors when she was selected in August 1978. "She was not a strident feminist, but she was ... always someone, a woman, who was very clear about maintaining her own finances and having her own set of things," Lutzker said. "She was a feminist in her own right, in her own way."

Aside from her public efforts to give back, her husband Richard Abeles said she helped people privately, such as when she took the initiative to help pay for their housekeeper's son to go to college and encouraged Richard to help another person who worked for them to buy a house. "It was sort of typical of Kathy that she would find out about these problems and then do what she could to help," Richard Abeles said. "She didn't go tell people 'Oh, I'm helping out so and so, and then doing this and that and the other thing.' They were just things that she thought needed doing."