If you’re not familiar with Harold Trujillo, you should be
Harold Trujillo is doing something this weekend he’s executed for more than 60 years: cleaning life-giving ditches so mountain runoff will flow into the acequias that traverse his farm in the Mora Valley village of Ledoux.
It is many miles and a lifetime from Ledoux to the Andaluz Hotel in Albuquerque, where Trujillo was named Engineer of the Year in February by his peers at the New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers.
Those who know Trujillo understand the award was not so much for his feats of engineering as much as it is for the integrity, humility and community service he brings to everything he does. And he does a lot.
Trujillo began working for the state Energy, Mineral and Natural Resources Department in 1979. He’s now chief for its Energy Technology and Engineering Bureau of the Energy Conservation Management Division, also known as the state energy office.
That’s a long title for a business card that should simply read: Harold Trujillo — New Mexico’s energy efficiency and conservation expert. With the subtitle of “institutional memory.”
I met him in 2007 when he first retired from the natural resources department after 28 years of service. He was under contract by the city of Santa Fe to assist senior city planner Katherine Mortimer in the development of precedent-setting green building codes.
Still a builder then, I volunteered with Faren Dancer and Dalinda Bangert to represent interests of Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association members. Our weekly meetings with Mortimer and Trujillo went for months, negotiating line by line the minutiae of the final document.
As the only one in the group who was New Mexico born and raised, Trujillo’s expertise and perspective were invaluable. Fresh-baked goodies from his oven were also a delight. Aside from obvious generosity, he knew sharing communal food kept camaraderie tight among people with shared goals but strong opinions.
He’s been the gatekeeper for the Sustainable Building Tax Credit, which helped transformed construction in New Mexico. But as significant as his career with the state has been, it’s his work securing New Mexico’s ancient and fragile acequias that may be his legacy.
As a founding member of the New
Mexico Acequia Association in 1989, he is now chairman of its board of directors. He’s also president of three acequias in the Mora Valley, and his wife heads a fourth.
As the state official most connected to policies addressing climate change ramifications, he has also spent decades watching ebb and flow trickles in ditches that sustained his ancestors. What he’s seen is troubling, not the least of which was watching 300 acres of family forest burn along with their summer cabin. It underscores the importance of his professional life ensuring the state gets it right with energy policy and programs.
Trujillo got his engineering degree from New Mexico State University in 1972, and he was promptly drafted into the Army and served at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
After his discharge in 1974, he studied computer science at New Mexico Highlands University when “programming” meant punching holes in stacks of cards fed into mainframes the size of VW minibuses. He caught the attention of honchos at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who recruited him to help design top-secret buildings using computer-aided design, then in its infancy.
Four years in the Bay Area was enough, and he eagerly returned to New Mexico in 1979 to begin working with the state. According to fellow engineer Yeny Maestas, who nominated Trujillo for the recent award, he shows no signs of slowing down.
He confirmed there were many big and exciting projects on the state’s horizon that can use his expertise. There are no immediate plans to retire again. But when he does, the Mora Valley will call him home.