Bill Huey, known to some as the godfather of New Mexico wildlife management, died Wednesday at his home in Tesuque — almost a year and a half after the death of his wife of 62 years.

Huey, 85, spent more than three decades with the state Game and Fish Department, rising to cabinet secretary of its parent agency. After retirement, he traveled extensively and became an outspoken conservationist.

Born on March 25, 1925, to Homer Ella Morrow Huey and William Huey in Wichita Falls, Texas, at age 2 he was moved to Fort Worth, where he was raised by his mother, her parents, Sampson H. and George Annie Webb Morrow, and his five aunts, especially Ann Morrow Griffith.

After graduating from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Huey enlisted in the military and reported to Aviation Cadet School in Dallas in 1943. In 1945, he left for England where he was a turret gunner on a B-17 bomber.

After the war, he enrolled in New Mexico A&M, now New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, studying engineering, and soon met another engineering student, Mary Blue of Rochester, N.Y. After an engagement of only a few hours, Huey and Blue were wed. They remained married until her death on March 6, 2009.

After graduating in 1948, Huey took a job as a game warden for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and was posted to Reserve. He would later serve as the department's chief of public affairs and assistant director before Gov. Jerry Apodaca appointed him cabinet secretary of the new Natural Resources Department in 1977. He retired from state government at the end of 1982.

"I'll grow a mustache and make a little trip, visit some longhorn ranches, then see an El Greco show in Dallas," Huey said upon announcing his retirement.

But if anything, Huey's retirement meant more activity. He made 14 trips to Africa, became an outspoken conservationist and lobbied for the federal government to buy the Valles Caldera of the Jemez Mountains.

In 1997, when the Federal Highway Administration proposed to pave some of N.M. 126 in the Jemez Mountains, Huey pointed out that it would lead to development, heavy recreational use and timber harvesting.

In 2001, he warned hunters and fishermen that unless they got organized, their concerns would be ignored. In 2003, he was among five former state game directors who opposed oil and gas drilling on Otero Mesa in Southern New Mexico. In 2005, he supported keeping big-game regulations for cougars. Without the regulations, he said, no agency would be responsible for managing the population of the big cats.

Huey was honored by the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation and as a Santa Fe Living Treasurer. A state waterfowl refuge near Artesia is named for him.

He also became an accomplished wood carver, something he learned from his grandfather, making animal figures from blocks of wood as well as stone and casting clay. He loved gardening and raised chickens, pea fowl, racing pigeons, koi and many dogs at his Tesuque residence for more than 55 years.

In addition to his dogs Kate and Sandy III, survivors include cousins Dina Smith of Fort Worth, Ross Morrow and wife Rowina of Dallas, Betty McCampbell of Amarillo, Texas, and several unofficially adopted children such as Ricky Pacheco and Lisa Dendahl West.

West, a daughter of former New Mexico Republican Party chairman John Dendahl, said Thursday that she grew up next door to the Hueys in Tesuque and was close to Bill since she was 3 years old and wandered away from her home.

"He just kind of found me on the hillside and took me back home and he asked my mom, 'Does this belong to you?' " she said. "Am I kin? No, but I'm as close to kin as you can get."

A memorial is being planned for September. Memorials in Huey's honor can be directed to the Nature Conservancy or any animal rescue organization.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.