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Dr. Sabine R. Ulibarrí was born September 21, 1919 in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. His long career as educator, writer, poet, essayist, critic, and statesman began in the Río Arriba County Schools in 1938, where he taught for two years before going on to teach at the El Rito Normal School from 1940 to 1942. After receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross for having flown thirty-five combat missions over Europe during World War II, Ulibarrí returned to study under the G.I. Bill at the University of New Mexico, graduating with majors in English and Spanish in 1947. The following year he...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
courtesy of Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico General Library

Mary Lou Cook is, literally, a Santa Fe Living Treasure, and when you meet her it is impossible not to get caught up in her enthusiasm for life. Like an organic, down-to-earth Auntie Mame, MLC, as she is known, has more excitement and energy and excitement than most. “It's great fun,” she exclaims. “I love my life!”

An author, calligrapher, and community activist, MLC always seems to have two to three businesses going at once. “These are fun things that I have a passion for,” she reveals. Currently, she teaches classes on bookmaking, pastecraft, spirit stick, getting organized, use of...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Maria Sutherland

Barbara Mallery has been named a Living Treasure not so much for what she has done (although she has done a great deal), but for who she is. Words from her many letters of nomination say it best:

Barby is so interested in each being that she gives each and every one of us her undivided attention. She is selfless like a saint! She has not an ounce of prejudice in her bones, and has compassion for all. She is always there, helping, helping, helping.

Barb's service to the Santa Fe community, her wonderful positive outlook on life, and her warmth, kindness and infectious smile all lend...

Sunday, October 1, 2006
by Richard McCord • Santa Fe Living Treasures

In his youth, Manuel B. Ortiz never participated in Boy Scouting. In fact, he remained unacquainted with it until February 1999, nine months before his retirement from the accounting and auditing section of the New Mexico Department of Transportation. Only then, in order to help provide a father figure for two young sons of a woman friend, did he become involved in Scouting. Yet by now, just seven years later, he has been given the Silver Beaver Award, the highest honor that the Boy Scouts of America can bestow.

Along the way, Manny (as he prefers to be called by everyone, including the...

Sunday, October 1, 2006
by Richard McCord • Santa Fe Living Treasures

Donna Quasthoff was born in 1924 in Chicago, one of the most architecturally stimulating cities on Earth. She acquired a first-rate education in art and architecture, first at the Chicago Institute of Art, then with advanced studies in Paris. For a time she taught and practiced her craft in New York. But then, as she likes to say, she had the good sense to move to New Mexico while still young. New Mexico and Santa Fe have benefited from her decision ever since.

A few of Donna's accomplishments after her arrival in 1954 include: the bronze statue of Fray Angélico Chávez outside the state...

Sunday, October 1, 2006
by Richard McCord • Santa Fe Living Treasures

In 1967, just 10 years after her graduation from the University of New Mexico with a degree in political science, Maralyn Budke became chief of staff for the state's governor, David Cargo. It was a remarkable job at a remarkably young age--and was just the first of dozens of similar distinctions to come in her remarkable life.

From the governor's office she moved to the state's important Legislative Finance Committee, which she directed for the next 14 years, training three of her successors in the process. Then in 1982, at the surprisingly young age of 46, she retired. With family...

Monday, May 1, 2006
courtesy of Santa Fe Living Treasures

For more than three decades before his retirement in 2004, Max Coll served the people of New Mexico as a “citizen legislator” in the state House of Representatives. Beginning in his native Roswell and then for 32 years in Santa Fe, he worked tirelessly for causes and issues he believed would make life better for us all.

According to a torrent of letters supporting him for today's award, those causes were many and varied--as were the people signing the letters. The writers included fellow legislators, a former governor, a former U.S. cabinet secretary, rafting companions, Rotarians,...

Monday, May 1, 2006
courtesy of Santa Fe Living Treasures

When people try to describe A. Samuel “Sam” Adelo, a word they come up with almost every time is “gentleman.” This soft-spoken and invariably courteous man quietly exudes an innate appreciation for the worth of other human beings, from the highest to the least.

Over the course of his long, rich life, which began in 1923 in the village of Pecos, N. M., Sam has interacted with an astonishing array of people, always graciously. In his ongoing education he won degrees from St. Michael's High School, Notre Dame University, Northwestern University and Southern Methodist University, among...

Tuesday, November 1, 2005
courtesy of Santa Fe Living Treasures

Viola Maes and Amadeo Padilla were married in Mora, N. M., in 1942, then almost immediately were separated for three years while he served overseas in World War II. He returned in 1945, however, and by 1958 their family had grown to include seven children. But Amadeo and Viola were worried that Mora's small and strained public school system could not provide an adequate education to prepare their children to succeed in life. So Viola and the children moved to Santa Fe to attend school here, while Amadeo stayed in Mora to run his barbershop. Then for 10 years the family maintained this...

Tuesday, November 1, 2005
courtesy of Santa Fe Living Treasures

When their first son, Budge, was born to Marjorie and Henry Muth, they were as thrilled as any other parents. Not until a second son came did they see that there was a sharp difference between the learning capability of the boys. They had Budge tested. The diagnosis: “developmentally disabled.”

There were no public educational opportunities for the retarded in the late 1940s, so Marjorie and her husband enrolled Budge in a private school. To pay for it, she did something she had vowed not to do: She became a teacher. “I'll never teach!” she had said upon graduating from Rockford College...

Monday, November 1, 2004
by Richard McCord • Santa Fe Living Treasures