Obituaries

Mary “Bambi” Prince Adams, Nov. 27 Ray Nichols Cellan, 73, Nov. 30 Charlotte (Lotte) Culberg, 91, Nov. 28 Lee Driver, 73, Taos, Dec. 6 Veronka (Vera) John-Steiner, 87, Dec. 6 Charles Miller, Dec. 6 Thomas Marvin Moore, 59, Santa Fe, Dec. 5 Dolores L. Rivera, 71, Ribera, Dec. 6 Annie L. Sandoval, 95, Dec. 5 Kathy Sparks, 70, Santa Fe, Dec. 6 Reynaldo Ismael Trejo, 85, Española, Dec. 2 Michael Anthony Valdez Jr., 35, Española, Dec. 1 Teodora “Teddy” Vigil, 96, Española, Dec. 6 Eugene A. Wolkoff, Sept. 9 Laurie Ann Wright, 57, Santa Fe, Dec. 4

CHARLES MILLER 1934 - 2017

Charles Miller, well-known Houston businessman, civic leader, loyal and dearly loved friend to many, passed away on Wednesday, the 6th of December 2017, in Houston, Texas, surrounded by family and friends after a six-year battle with cancer.

Charles was born in Galveston, Texas on the 13th of February 1934, to Sam and Rose Cohen Miller. He graduated from Ball High School in Galveston, served in the U.S. Navy, and graduated from The University of Texas-Austin with a B.A. in mathematics in 1959. Charles was always proud of his status as "born on the island."

Charles was gifted with a powerful intellect and a hunger to use it to change the world for the better. While at Texas, he was on the U.T. Bridge Team, captained an intramural national championship and was designated a Life Master by the American Contract Bridge League. After graduate studies in mathematics and statistics in Austin, Charles worked as an Investment Officer at the Texas Teacher Retirement Fund before moving to Houston to work as a portfolio manager for Funds, Inc., which later became Criterion Investment Management Company. Charles executed one of the first known leveraged buy-outs in 1977, and built Criterion Group into a diversified, national investment management organization, which at one point in the 1980s was the largest independent private account investment management company in the country. Criterion became a publicly-traded company in 1986 and was acquired by Transamerica Corporation in 1991, with Charles continuing to serve as President until he retired in 1994 to pursue new business opportunities and various personal interests. Charles subsequently was founder and chairman of Meridian Advisors, and Medallion Investment Management Company in New Mexico. Legions of former partners and employees of the investment companies are proud to have known Charles as friend and mentor.

Charles was a strong believer in the essential value of public education and saw early that in Texas it was dysfunctional, limited upward mobility and threatened economic opportunity. He worked tirelessly for decades to improve educational results for students and parents. He advised Texas Governors including William P. Clements, Mark White, Ann Richards, George W. Bush and Rick Perry on education reform. He partnered with H. Ross Perot to author a reform package in 1984 that, among less notable but more important reforms, included the "no pass, no play" rule. His work with Gov. Bush produced sweeping educational accountability reforms in Texas that later became the blueprint for landmark federal "No Child Left Behind" legislation. He was an early advocate and promoter of Texas charter school initiatives. Charles served as Chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System 2001-04 and piloted historic reform of higher education funding through the Texas Legislature. He also served as Chairman of the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education 2005-06. He was an advisory council member of The University of Texas System Institute for Public School Initiatives, Teach for America and the World Affairs Council.

His other activities have spanned a very broad range. Charles has recently served on the Advisory Board for Education at the Bush Institute in Dallas and the Texas Heart Institute Foundation Board in Houston. He was Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Partnership, and served on the boards of the Governor’s Business Council, the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, the Charter School Policy Institute and the Texas Medical Center.

Charles was a pioneer in advocating the benefits of diversity and inclusion, and was recognized for his leadership in civic and business activities by the University of St. Thomas Center for Business Ethics. He was also recognized by the American Leadership Forum; Downtown Houston Association; Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; the Committee for Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts; National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine; Neighborhood Centers; Texas Monthly magazine; and the United Negro College Fund.

As an extension of their personal commitment to revitalization of communities as catalysts for positive change in the world, Charles and his wife Beth founded and chaired The Center for the Study of Community at their Santa Fe residence, Sol y Sombra, a frequent meeting place for political leaders, philosophers, scientists and citizen activists, including the Dalai Lama, to come together to advance community initiatives. At their compound in Santa Fe, Charles and Beth were practitioners and promoters of sustainable agriculture in cultivating the high, arid American Southwest, known as permaculture. They created and produced a major exhibit on permaculture at the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2002 and were recognized with a silver medal.

Charles Miller is survived by his loving wife of 48 years, Roxibeth Birdwell Miller; daughter Mary Lynn Patton, Ph.D.; son, Dr. Robert H. Patton and wife, Christine; brother Harry G. Miller; sister Dorothy Borel; nephew and nieces, Warren Cravey; Samantha Miller; Londa Cravey; Lorene Cravey; Cheryl Sloniger and Christine Tillman; granddaughter Merritt Patton Moses; grandsons Kyle Patton and future bride Karen Wilson; Ben Patton and wife, Mary; and great-granddaughter Violet Patton.

The family would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to the many caregivers as well as Dr. Vivek Subbiah and Dr. David Hong for their care and attentiveness during his illness.

A memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Monday, the 11th of December, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held in the adjacent grand foyer.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions, in Charles’ honor, may be directed toward the University Of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Clinical Center for TargetedTherapy, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030; which Charlie loved and which loved him back.

Services in Houston are entrusted to Geo. H. Lewis & Sons-The Funeral Directors, 1010 Bering Drive, Houston, TX 77057.

713-789-3005 (www.geohlewis.com)

EUGENE A. WOLKOFF

EUGENE A. WOLKOFF, a twenty-five year Santa Fe resident, died just after midnight on Sept. 9, 2017, from burns suffered the evening before in a White Plains, NY, car accident. Born in 1932 to Oscar and Jean Wolkoff, "Gene" grew up in The Bronx during an era when side streets were playgrounds and stick ball was his neighborhood’s favorite game. Gene’s fondest memories of those days were the freedom to play with his best buddies - many of whom remained his closest friends for life - every spare hour not spent in school or delivering papers. The abiding rule was: Just be home in time for dinner. Since Yankee Stadium

was a short subway ride away, he religiously saved his paper route nickels and dimes in order to pay his train fare there, then had the unparalleled pleasure of watching the Yankees play while feasting on a hot dog and soda. His dream was to someday play first base, which he did, but it was for his high school varsity team, not the Yankees. He claimed that it was because he could never hit a curve ball, he’d made the decision to attend college.

Gene graduated from Brooklyn College in 1953. Shortly thereafter he enlisted in the United States Air Force and served five years flying military transport planes, primarily to Korea. In 1954 he married Claire Zwillinger, his college girlfriend who became the mother of their two daughters, Mandy and Elana. (The marriage ended in divorce.) After his Air Force enlistment, Gene elected to study law at St. John’s University.

He was awarded his J.D. in1961 and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1962. During this time he was an active member of the Air Force Reserves in addition to flying for charter commercial airlines to supplement his beginning attorney’s salary. His time in the Reserves took him to obscure bases such as Wake Island, the Azores, Guam, then increasingly to Vietnam and at least once to Israel where he met then Prime Minister, Golda Meir. Concurrently, he became a named partner in the NYC law firm of Callahan & Wolkoff. Between hectic trips and legal work he once boarded a flight in Gander, Newfoundland, where he met Judie Edwards, a teacher and future children’s book writer. They married in 1967 and had two daughters, Alexa and Justine. By the 60’s, Gene was as passionate about running as he once had been about playing stick ball. His best time ever was in the Bay to Breakers Race. Entered as a seeded runner, he made an impressive finish which he explained in his typical off-handed way as, "I had no choice. It was either run like hell or get trampled to death by a hundred thousand people behind me."

In 1990, Gene and Judie bought a house in the historic area of Santa Fe. They decided to move there permanently in 1992 when he began a new phase of his legal career: General Counsel to BGK Properties then its successor properties, Rosemont Realty and Gemini Rosemont Real Estate. Gene passed the New Mexico Bar exam without studying and gave credit for this success to his surprising discovery that it contained a question he’d studied for, but hadn’t been asked, in his New York Bar Exam 30 years before, Three decades later, he was delighted that he’d finally been given the opportunity to write his answer.Throughout his life Gene was diligent and hard-working yet always made time to offer his valuable advice and personal counsel to anyone who asked-colleagues, a friend of a friend, a domestic worker, relative or a celebrity. He loved the law. He loved the practice of the law and each of the 55 years he gave to the profession. He was a man of great wisdom and integrity, someone who expressed touching humility, but nevertheless could flip a moment of solemnity or questionable gossip upside-down with a quick, irreverent one-liner. He was a much loved husband to Judie who considered him her best and most intimate, reliable friend. He was a pillar of strength to all his "girls"-Mandy, Elana, Alexa and Justine. All grown now and parents themselves, these four daughters were greatly loved and admired for their ethics, independence, perseverance and fairmindedness, qualities they absorbed by observing their father. In turn, their children, Gene’s six grandchildren, Arin, Kayla, Mara, Josh, Hunter and Malcolm are learning by example.

In addition to his wife, Judie, his four daughters and six grandchildren, Gene is survived by his sister, Phyllis, his brothers Marc and Allan, his stepfather, Frank Morea, and eight nieces and nephews. He touched us all and will be remembered with love and gratitude each and every day of our lives. He was a noble spirit.

RAY NICHOLS CELLAN

Ray Nichols Cellan, Age 73, passed away on November 30, 2017 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Ray was born on July 18, 1944 in Casper, Wyoming to his parents Jacob Roy Cellan and Martha Maye Nichols. Ray attended Natrona County high school where he received his high school diploma in 1962. Shortly after graduating high school, he completed 1 year of study at Casper Junior College.

After completing 3 years in ROTC, Mr. Cellan joined the Wyoming National Guard for six years from April 26, 1965 to April 25, 1971. While in the National Guard, Mr. Cellan was a PFC3 and was discharged with honors as a staff Sergeant. Later Mr. Cellan married his beloved Wife of 41 years Karen Marlene Stantz, on December 13, 1975 in Denver, Colorado.

Mr. Cellan worked at Halburns Truck and Equipment for 13 years. Ray loved being outdoors any chance he could. He especially enjoyed Fishing, Hunting, camping with people he loved, hiking, skiing, water skiing, playing baseball and enjoying a good game of Golf. He was a faithful member at All Saints Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Rays favorite quote was by John Wayne: "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up any way!"

Ray was an Organ Donor and we already know that his eyes with 20/20 vision were gifted to someone who would have never been able to see! He has been cremated and his ashes will be scattered at the family’s favorite camp site at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp above Hillside in Colorado, also at some of his favorite fishing holes in Northern, New Mexico, where we know he’d love to be. Ray will be truly missed by all who knew and loved him dearly.

Ray was preceded in death by both of his parents Jacob Roy Cellan and Martha Maye Nichols; his step father Norvel Independence Bennett.

He is survived by his beloved wife Karen S. Cellan; his two daughters Alanna N. Cellan and Amy A. Enriquez; his granddaughter Natalie Rae Cellan; his two grandsons Jonah Dale Cellan and Jacob Felix Enriquez, all of Rio Rancho, New Mexico; also his brother Roy R. Cellan and wife Kathryn Cellan from Missoula, Montana; his niece Kimberly R. Bauer and his Nephew Brian Cellan.

To everyone who has helped us through this difficult loss, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

A memorial service celebrating Ray’s life will be held on Saturday, December 13, 2018 at 3:00 pm at All Saints Lutheran Church located at 4800 All Saints Rd NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120. With a reception to follow. To view information or leave a condolence, please visit www.danielsfuneral.com. Arrangements have been entrusted to: Southern Chapel 2400 Southern Blvd Rio Rancho, NM 87124

IN LOVING MEMORY OF BERNADETTE R. ANGEL MAY, 25, 1952 - DECEMBER 15, 2016

A day doesn’t go by that we don’t think about you and remember your beautiful smile, feisty spirit, and carefree approach to life. You were always such a strong, independent woman and always stood up for what you felt was right. You were a strong supporter of the underdog and never afraid to speak up and argue your point. Her favorite saying was, "don’t let anyone push you around, they all put their pants on one leg at a time same as us." Of course, Bernadette also had a softer side. She was a loving, supportive mother, grandmother, daughter, and sister and even after she was struggling with COPD attended local school sporting events to cheer on her grandsons and granddaughter. A loyal friend to so many, Bernadette was always willing to lend a helping hand to assist her friends with home repairs and projects.

Please join us for a one-year anniversary mass to be celebrated at St. Anne’s Church on December 15, 2107 at 8:00 am.

Love and Miss you, The Romero and Angel Families