In 2010, Santa Feans bid goodbye to a former Interior secretary, dedicated public servants, writers and actors, a former CIA agent and many others who are remembered by family and friends with affection and appreciation.

Here, in chronological order, is a look back at some of the people who passed away during the last year:

Maralyn Budke, 73
Public servant, Jan. 9

Maralyn Budke, former chief of staff to Gov. Garrey Carruthers, was for many years one of the go-to people in state government.

"She was wonderfully bright, probably the most knowledgeable person about New Mexico government I've every known," Carruthers said. "She had an intimate knowledge of the players and the system."

Ten years after graduating from The University of New Mexico with a degree in political science, Budke became chief of staff to Gov. David Cargo. For 14 years, she was director of the Legislative Finance Committee before retiring — for the first time — in 1982, at age 46.

She served on the boards of Santa Maria el Mirador — a home for developmentally disabled adults — and an animal protection group. When Carruthers was elected governor in 1986, he asked Budke to come out of retirement to be his chief of staff, which she did without additional compensation.

After retiring a second time from state government in 1990, Budke led a blue-ribbon task force to revise the state's formula for supporting higher education. In 2006, she was named a Santa Fe Living Treasure and in 2007, Gov. Bill Richardson appointed her to a task force on ethics reform.

Georgelle Hirliman, 73
Astrologer, actress, author, Jan. 29

Georgelle Hirliman, an astrologer, actress and author, was sitting in a friend's apartment looking across the street to a storefront window when, "All of a sudden, I had the idea that I would love to sit and write in that window," she said. The window in question belonged to the now-defunct Gamut store near the Plaza. The locale — and a stipend for her work — came from the Santa Fe Council for the Arts.

Though she initially expected to start a new novel, Hirliman ended up taking questions from passers-by. The questions ranged from the silly — "Where do ducks go when ponds freeze over?" to which Hirliman replied, "Warm, chlorinated pools in Miami and Beverly Hills" — to serious requests for advice on love, spirituality, faith and work.

Hirliman moved to Albuquerque in 2000, where she often performed her autobiographical one-woman stage show, Dear Writer in the Window. She moved back to Santa Fe in autumn 2008.

As a young adult, she claimed to have worked various jobs including secretary, cigarette girl, model, journalist and call girl. She moved to the Santa Fe area in the early 1970s and at one time was known in the Cerrillos area by the name Gentle Wind. She worked in radio and became romantically involved with one of four members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club — who were convicted in the murder of an Albuquerque college student in 1974 — and later exonerated when the actual killer confessed. She also wrote The Hate Factory, a 1982 account of the 1980 New Mexico state penitentiary riot, which left 33 inmates dead and many others injured.

Francine Neff, 84
Former U.S. treasurer, Feb. 9

Francine Neff, who grew up in rural New Mexico, was appointed U.S. treasurer by President Richard Nixon in 1974, was reappointed by President Gerald Ford and then served until 1977.

Friends said Neff's national service was always a point of pride for Republicans living in New Mexico. "Francine was a great gal," former New Mexico Lt. Gov. Jack Stahl said. "She always remained the same person, even when she held a national position."

Neff was raised in Mountainair, then attended Cottey College in Nevada, Mo., before graduating from The University of New Mexico in 1948 with a double major in English and music. She co-founded an accounting firm in Albuquerque with her husband, Edward J. Neff, and was active in community and school organizations. She got started in politics by campaigning for GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964. She served as a GOP national committeewoman from 1970-74.

Her daughter, Sindle Sandoval, said that even though her mother served as the nation's treasurer, "her ability to balance the checkbook was questionable. My dad teased her and said she was perfect for the job because she truly understood deficit spending."

Mary R. 'Mariko' Murakami Houck, 76
Ballet teacher, Feb. 10

Mary R. "Mariko" Murakami Houck wanted to become a dancer and actress from the age of 5. She finally left her home in South Dakota when she was 20 and headed for Hollywood, Calif., where she earned an acting scholarship to Pasadena Playhouse. In 1968, Houck and her family moved to Los Alamos and in 1972 Mariko began teaching ballet there. She started the Pajarito Ballet Theatre de Santa Fe in 1982 and served as the company's artistic director until 1990.

Two of Houck's original ballets explored themes of multiculturalism. Proud Heritage focuses on Native Americans in New Mexico and the influence of the Spanish, while Winter War tells the story of Japanese Americans, including the internment during World War II. Both ballets earned funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and were performed at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

"If you wanted super-serious ballet, you went to her," said Cory-Jeanne Murakami Houck-Cox. "She was kind, yet very fierce. She could teach with great humor and love."

Houck founded the Ballet Theatre International, based in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, in 1993. It brought together some of the world's best dancers and gave local dancers the chance to perform with them in cities across the country until 2001.

Betty Fiorina, who served three terms as secretary of state in New Mexico, was a "pioneer for women in politics," said her son, former Municipal Judge Tom Fiorina.

"When she was first elected, she faced some powerful women in the primary," he said. "But she broke out of the old back room ward system and took her campaign to the streets, to the people."

Betty Fiorina won her first election as secretary of state in 1958. During that period, the terms were only two years. She won a four-year term to that office in 1970. Before that last term, she served as chief clerk of a Constitutional Convention in the late 1960s. The chairman of that convention was the late Bruce King, who went on to win three terms as governor.

She was active in her son's campaigns for municipal judge in the 1980s and 1990s.

Besides her love for politics, Betty Fiorina also had a great love for dogs, Tom Fiorina said. "I know she's going to heaven, but she's also going to dog heaven," the former judge said.

David Salman, 74
Former state representative, Feb. 28

David Salman, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1969 to 1978, served as majority floor leader from 1971 to 1978. He was part of the so-called "Mama Lucy Gang," a coalition of Bernalillo County liberals and largely Northern New Mexico representatives that controlled the House until the late 1970s.

According to the Legislative Council Service, he was the primary sponsor of the Public Schools Financing Act in 1971, the School Equalization Fund in 1972 and the measure that established the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo. He also was the main sponsor of New Mexico's first medical-marijuana legislation, the 1978 Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act.

Salman was born in Houston, graduated from high school in Las Vegas, N.M., and earned his college degree from Princeton University in 1958. He served in the Army Field Artillery from 1958 to 1959. He was president of the Salman Ranch near Mora from 1960 to 2002.

William Stephen Murphy, 78
Artist, graphic designer, raconteur, Mar. 15

Bill Murphy loved telling favorite stories and, according to his friend Dan Anthony, manager of Glenna Goodacre Ltd., every time he repeated them, "We laughed just as loud."

His wife, Barbara Murphy, and several friends said he could make a joke in the most unlikely circumstances. For example, after waking up from an operation at Santa Fe's general hospital, Murphy looked up at the ceiling and remarked to his very amused visitors, "If this is heaven, I'm really disappointed."

Bill Murphy, who was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of the Arts, started painting New Mexico scenes as early as 1952, using photographs by Ansel Adams and Laura Gilpin. In New York City, he worked as a cartoonist for Esquire and Playboy Magazine. He illustrated books — published by Grove Press, Simon & Schuster, Delacorte and others — and produced 40 educational films for the American Medical Association.

In 1988, Murphy took the advice of his son, Stephen, who had died two years earlier of leukemia, to "do something you love for the rest of your life" and moved to Santa Fe where he joined the sketch group, became active in the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and made many landscape paintings and drawings, often in the open air.

Stewart Udall, 90
Former U.S. secretary of the Interior, March 20

Stewart Udall sowed the seeds of the modern environmental movement as interior secretary during the 1960s and later became a crusader for victims of radiation exposure from the government's Cold War nuclear programs.

A brother of 15-term congressman Morris Udall, he served six years in Congress as a Democrat from Arizona, and then headed the Interior Department for eight years under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Both his son, Tom, D-N.M., and nephew, Mark, became congressmen, and both were elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008.

Under Stewart Udall's leadership from 1961 to 1968, the Interior Department aggressively promoted an expansion of public lands and helped win enactment of major environmental laws, including ones to protect endangered species.

Udall helped write several far-reaching pieces of legislation, including the Wilderness Act of 1964, which protects millions of acres from logging, mining and other development. More than 60 additions were made to the National Park system during the Udall years, including Canyonlands National Park in Utah, North Cascades National Park in Washington, Redwood National Park in California and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail stretching from Georgia to Maine.

In a 1963 book, Udall warned of a "quiet conservation crisis" from pollution, overuse of natural resources and dwindling open spaces. He appealed for a new "land conscience" to preserve the environment.

After leaving government service, Udall taught, practiced law, wrote books and helped bring a lawsuit against the government on behalf of the families of Navajo men who suffered lung cancer in mining uranium for the government. In 1990, the Radiation Exposure Safety Act was enacted to compensate thousands of Americans. Udall helped write the measure and lobby for its passage.

In a 1994 book, Udall reassessed the actions of his own generation and criticized the rush to develop the atomic bomb, its use against Japan and decades of government secrecy in what he described as "our tragic affair with the atom."

Udall moved to New Mexico in 1989 to live near family.

William Verderber, 60
Stage actor, March 22

At the time of his death, veteran stage actor William Verderber was slated to perform in Robert Benjamin's play Time Enough — about a man with cancer who gets a chance to rekindle an old romance — that was to be presented at Warehouse 21.

He worked as a professional actor for close to 40 years, racking up credits on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theater, and working with such notable actors as Frank Langella, George C. Scott and John Lithgow.

Verderber moved to Santa Fe in 2007, and his first appearance on stage in the City Different was in Red Thread Collective's The Last Tudor, directed by Clara Soister, in the summer of 2008. He also appeared in Tartuffe, King Lear and The Lion in Winter.

Alaina Zachary, who worked with Verderber in several shows, said, "There was no doubt that he was incredibly gifted. There's so many things people don't know about him. He was a monster cat lover. He always loved the women — one of his favorite hangouts was The Cowgirl. He was a baseball fanatic, he had a passion for travel and his erudition on film, actors, theater was unmatched."

Richard Dorman, 87
Architect, April 3

According to his son, architect Richard Dorman did more in his 87 years than most people do "in three lifetimes."

Dorman was drafted during World War II and flew a B-24 plane named Tropic Knight while in the Army Air Corps. After the war, he attended the University of Southern California on the GI Bill, graduating in 1951 with a degree in architecture. He went on to design dozens of buildings in Southern California, Seattle and elsewhere, for which he won numerous awards.

Among his buildings are the married couples' housing on the University of Southern California campus, a Playboy Club office building in Los Angeles and the Honeywell plant in Albuquerque. He also won a competition to design a trade fair pavilion for the U.S. Department of Commerce in Thessaloniki, Greece. Dorman was featured in a 1962 Life magazine story titled The Take Over Generation.

In 1975, Dorman moved to Santa Fe, where he continued to design buildings — including several office buildings in Santa Fe — with partner Larry Breen.

It was in Santa Fe that Dorman pursued one of his other passions: railroads. He researched and wrote 13 books on narrow-gauge railroads. He also spent the better part of 30 years building a miniature railroad model that took up about 750 square feet of space in a specially built room adjacent to his home on Santa Fe's northeast side.

Gail Naomi Ryba, 47
Bicycle and renewable-energy advocate, May 7

Gail Naomi Ryba worked for years to improve bicycling safety around the state. She founded the Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico and was a member of the New Mexico Department of Transpiration's Bicycle, Pedestrian and Equestrian Committee.

Because of Ryba, said Tom Rael, "We have so many more trails, shoulders, signs, maps and awareness" of bicycling.

Born in Seattle, Ryba graduated from Reed College and earned a doctorate in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. She worked for Sandia Laboratories as a fuel cell researcher. While in Albuquerque, she co-founded the Sandia Bicycle Commuters Group and, later, the Greater Albuquerque Spokes People, a bicycle advocacy group that became BikeABQ. She left Sandia to become executive director of the Coalition for Clean, Affordable Energy — a group of conservation and renewable-energy groups that worked to beef up renewable energy standards in the state.

Ryba taught basic bicycling skills to women and urged people to use bikes whenever possible. The League of American Bicyclists named her their 2010 Phyllis Harman Volunteer of the Year and planned on presenting her with the award at their national bike rally scheduled June 3 to 6 in Albuquerque.

Ernestine Evans, 92
Former New Mexico secretary of state, June 9

Ernestine Evans, a former three-term secretary of state and the first woman elected to the state Legislature from Rio Arriba County, was a "master storyteller" and a lover of poetry who adored traveling.

But New Mexicans remember her for her roles in government and politics. Evans worked for the state for 34 years in various posts, including stints as executive secretary for two governors: John Burroughs (1959-1960) and Jack Campbell (1963-1966).

She was born in Alamosa, Colo., but grew up on a small farm in El Rito. At 16, she graduated from high school at the top of her class, earned her teaching certificate and by age 18 was teaching school. She married Alcadio Griego, the Rio Arriba County treasurer, two years later. In 1940, Griego ran for state representative. He won the primary election but died of spinal meningitis six weeks after their son, Stanley, was born. Evans ran for state representative in her husband's place and won the general election.

Under Gov. John E. Miles, she was sent to inspect the state penitentiary, where she was kidnapped by a band of eight inmates, seven of whom were serving sentences for first-degree murder. According to her family, the inmates held an ice pick to her neck and threatened to kill her if they weren't released. One of the inmates cut her to show they were serious, but they never went through with their initial threat. The guards threw tear gas into the area and Evans escaped.

In 1944, Evans was working at Brunn Army Hospital in Santa Fe when she met her second husband, Seth Evans. In 1966, Ernestine Evans ran for secretary of state. She served two consecutive two-year terms from 1967 to 1970 and from 1975 to 1978.

Bill Christison, 81
Former CIA agent, June 13

Bill Christison, a Boston-born Princeton graduate, joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1950 as an analyst. He worked on Soviet affairs and nuclear proliferation, and in the 1970s was a principal adviser to the CIA director for Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa. His final position was director of the agency's Office of Regional and Political Analysis.

Christison met his wife, Kathy, who also worked for the CIA, during a tour in Saigon in the 1970s.

The couple moved to Santa Fe 30 years ago and their political views began to change. "It was a slow evolution," said Kathy Christison, who said she voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. "Bill used to say that the end of the Cold War is what made him start thinking differently," she said. "There was supposed to be a 'peace dividend,' but that just never came to be. He just began to realize that the U.S. should not be the only superpower."

Both Christisons began writing articles — both together and separately — for Counterpunch, an online "bi-weekly muckraking newsletter." "Bill was a very inspiring presence," said Alexander Cockburn, an editor of Counterpunch.

In a March 4, 2002, Counterpunch article, Bill Christison wrote, "My number one root cause (of terrorism) is the support by the U.S. over recent years for the policies of Israel with respect to the Palestinians, and the belief among Arabs and Muslims that the United States is as much to blame as Israel itself for the continuing, almost 35-year-long Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

The Christisons together wrote Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation, published in 2009.

Farrell Udell, 63
Veterans activist, June 29

Farrell Udell, a "legend" in the veterans community, enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from Taos High School and served from 1967 to 1970, a time span that included 11 months in Vietnam. He was a crew chief and gunner on a CH-46 helicopter and received numerous honors including a Purple Heart and 22 Air Medals.

Udell went to both The University of New Mexico and California State University on the GI Bill to earn degrees in counseling. He was hired by the Veterans Administration to work with the drug and alcohol program and later signed on to work at the Vet Center, a specialized service of the VA, and retired in July 2009 after 28 years as a team leader.

During his years at the Vet Center, he helped countless veterans receive unclaimed educational and disability benefits and put them on the right path with counseling.

In a July 2009 story in The New Mexican, Udell said he enjoyed the more challenging cases where he would have to dig for lost records. "I really took pride that I was like Sherlock Holmes and I tracked down these records," he said. "I've written to the president; I've written the secretary of the Army, the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and congressmen and senators. I've gotten everybody involved in trying to locate these veterans' records and when we do, that opens up their whole array of benefits because now they can prove their story."

In his spare time, Udell enjoyed riding his horses — especially his rescued Arabian horse named Alibaba.

Suzanne Kate "Zannie" Hoyt, 75
Rancher, property developer, philanthropist, June 11

With her first husband, Bob Weil, Suzanne Kate "Zannie" Hoyt moved to Santa Fe in 1960 and bought the 31,000-acre Buckman Ranch from the Frank Bond family. In the 1970s, they subdivided the property, creating La Tierra, and in the 1980s they sold 4,700 acres to Lyle Anderson for Las Campanas. The Las Campanas clubhouse is on land that Hoyt called Dutch Pasture, the "home of happy cows."

Hoyt led a full and satisfying life, and she appreciated it every day, friends and relatives said. She funded scholarships, served on governmental advisory boards and commissions, fought for property-tax relief and was incredibly generous to her children, her family said. "She always put our family first, " said Betsie Weil, her youngest child. "I was lucky to have her for a mom."

Hoyt grew up playing baseball, sailing and horseback riding. She met Weil during her first year at Mount Holyoke. Eventually, seeking a new adventure, they came West with their children and got into ranching.

She also volunteered at what was then St. Vincent Hospital, but discovered her real calling at the Maternal and Child Health Center, which provided free medical care to women and children. She funded the Property Tax Assistance Fund at the Santa Fe Community Foundation and donated land for affordable housing. She served on the board of the College of Santa Fe, four years as its president. The New Mexican named her as one of the "Ten Who Made a Difference" in 1991.

She continued to raise cattle on the back sections of the ranch with her second husband, Joe Eloy Garcia, until 1999, when she donated grazing rights to New Mexico State University.

Herman Barkmann, 92
Engineer, July 10

Herman Barkmann, a structural engineer who helped design the hydrogen bomb, came to Los Alamos in 1948, when it was still a closed city. He worked with a firm of consulting engineers developing facilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory, including the "S" site, where the high-explosive parts of atomic bombs were developed.

After joining the lab staff in 1951, Barkmann began working on the initial design for the trigger of the hydrogen bomb, along with Hans Bethe and Stan Ulam.

For the first test, his team was allowed five weeks to prepare the bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. In a speech he gave to the Chile Club in 1976, Barkmann said that since the men had done all their work so well in New Mexico, they spent many days shell hunting, swimming, snorkeling, eating steak and drinking martinis and beer. Barkmann was on the team that took the bomb ashore and armed it.

Beginning in 1956, he worked on the lab's breeder-reactor program, also a top-secret project. He left Los Alamos in 1963. Six years later, he and a partner founded Q-dot Corporation, which developed an innovative heat exchanger. After selling the company in 1973, he worked as a consulting engineer, designing and constructing active and passive solar-energy systems.

Barkmann helped start the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club and worked to save the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad when it was in danger of being abandoned. He was a founder of the Santa Fe Preparatory School and an early board member of the Chamber Music Festival. He served as senior warden at the Holy Faith Episcopal Church, and for 35 years was treasurer of Nambé's Acequia de la Comunidad. He ran, unsuccessfully, as a Republican for the Santa Fe County Commission.

Barkmann and his wife, Frances Sharp, were members of the first volunteer ski patrols at the Los Alamos and Santa Fe ski areas.

Bill Huey, 85
Wildlife manager, Aug. 25

Bill Huey, known to some as the godfather of New Mexico wildlife management, 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 and raised in Texas, he enlisted in the military after graduating from high school 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 wildlife management. 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.

He lobbied for the federal government to buy the Valles Caldera of the Jemez Mountains and, 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 2003, he was among five former state game directors to oppose oil-and-gas drilling on Otero Mesa in Southern New Mexico.

Huey was honored by the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation and as a Santa Fe Living Treasure. A state waterfowl refuge near Artesia is named for him. He also became an accomplished wood carver, loved gardening and raised chickens, pea fowl, racing pigeons, koi and many dogs at his Tesuque residence for more than 55 years.

Madge Buckley, 91
Architect, AIDS activist, Oct. 3

Madge Buckley, whose son Kenneth died of AIDS in 1989, was devoted to the cause and for many years put together teams for Santa Fe's annual AIDS walk. She often won the prize for raising the most money.

Mike Wirtz, a longtime friend, said, "She was one of the most caring, unselfish people I've ever known, " he said. "If somebody needed something, she'd be there with food, clothing or comfort."

Buckley was born in Illinois and eloped with her husband in 1941 to Santa Fe, where they designed and built their own house. Buckley worked for Stamm Builders in Los Alamos until the birth of her son in 1950. It was then that she turned her energies to raising her family. She helped out with the children's ski program at Ski Santa Fe and enjoyed hiking, golf, bridge and poker.

In 1991, she put together a group to start making panels for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, described as the largest piece of community folk art in the world. In 1992, she took five completed panels to Washington, D.C. Blocks of the quilt —12-by-12-foot sections — were displayed in cities around the U.S., including in Santa Fe.

In 1995, Buckley was named a Living Treasure for her work on AIDS.

Arthur Bonal, 65
Government employee, Oct. 25

Arthur "Art" Bonal, a member of a prominent Santa Fe business and political family, worked for the last eight years at the state General Services Department as an administrative aide.

"He always had a smile on his face and never had anything bad to say about anyone, " said his brother, former City Councilor Maurice Bonal.

Art Bonal was a loyal Democrat and a Navy veteran who did several tours of duty in the Vietnam War. "No matter if there was rain, sleet or snow, Art would be out there helping the Democratic Party," his brother said. Just before his death, he cast his absentee ballot in the upcoming election.

The Bonal family has owned a number of businesses, including restaurants and motels, in Santa Fe since the early 1950s. Many of the establishments were on the 7-acre family property at Cerrillos Road and Paseo de Peralta, where the Hotel Santa Fe is today. A 2009 story in The New Mexican said their first business was a nightclub called the Rumba Club, opened after World War II. The club reportedly had the first Hammond organ and lighted dance floor in Santa Fe.

Most recently, the Bonals owned Toushie's Restaurant on Airport Road, which they ran between 1984 and 1998.

Fernando Garavito, 66
Author, Oct. 27

Santa Fe author Fernando Garavito was forced to choose a life in exile when his articles about the government, paramilitary groups and drug cartels in Colombia resulted in death threats against him and his family. He sought asylum in the U.S. in 2002 with his wife, ballet dancer Priscilla Welton, and children.

"He was an amazing man, " said Patrick Lannan, president of the Lannan Foundation. "It is cliché, but he really was not afraid to speak truth to power. He and his family were not afraid to express their views about things. Speaking truth to power, in a moral sense, is the responsibility of intellectuals. But most of the time, intellectuals don't speak truth to power, they work for power."

Garavito, a former columnist for The New Mexican, earned a law degree from the University of Javeriana and became a columnist at El Espectador in 1988. He began writing columns under the pen name Juan Mosca (John Fly), and under that name alleged that a 2002 presidential candidate was in league with drug traffickers and paramilitary groups.

PEN New Mexico and the Lannan Foundation sponsored the family in Santa Fe, where they moved in 2004. Garavito struggled to keep his voice, write what he thought was important, communicate in a language foreign to him and find a venue. He became a kindergarten teacher working with children in the Santa Fe Public Schools and at the time of his death had a Lannan Foundation residency to finish a book.

Eliseo Lopez, 92
Bataan Death March survivor, Nov. 11

Eliseo Lopez was a native of Springer and a survivor of the Bataan Death March.

He was drafted into the Army in Santa Fe in 1941. After training at Fort Bliss, Texas, he was sent to the Philippines.

Lopez was one of 70,000 American and Filipino troops who surrendered on the Philippines' Bataan Peninsula in April 1942. They were forced to march to Japanese prison camps in what became known as the Bataan Death March. The Japanese captors shot or bayoneted captives who collapsed during the march. About 1,800 of the captives were from New Mexico. Fewer than 900 survived the war.

Lopez, according to a history provided by the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico, spent time in several Japanese prison camps and was put to work as a slave laborer for various copper mines. He remained a prisoner until being rescued in September 1945 — a month after the end of the war.

After the war, Lopez worked for a bank in Springer. There, his daughter said, he met Benjamin Clayton, who offered him a job with his manufacturing company in California. Lopez worked for the Clayton firm for more than 30 years.

Hugh Prather, 72
Writer, minister, Nov. 15

Hugh Prather III, whose success with a series of philosophical self-help books came while living in Santa Fe in the 1970s, grew up in Dallas, where his father, Hugh Prather Jr., and grandfather John Armstrong were developers of the wealthy suburb of Highland Park.

Prather studied literature at Southern Methodist University, then moved to Austin where he enrolled in graduate psychology classes at the University of Texas. But he became bored with his studies, quit school and began to write. "He wrote beautiful poetry, but poetry wasn't, even back then, very big. All the time he was keeping a diary," said his wife, Gayle Prather.

From Austin, the Prathers moved to Berkeley, Calif., where Hugh wore long hair and a beard and began crafting his diary into a book while Gayle worked in a bank. The Prathers moved to a ranch between Pagosa Springs, Colo., and Chama, where Hugh finished his book, Notes to Myself, and sent it to Real People Press in Moab, Utah, which accepted it immediately.

First published in 1970, Notes to Myself went through 70 printings, was picked up by Doubleday and hit the New York Times bestseller list. According to his obituary in the Times, the book inspired Santa Fe humorist Jack Handey's long-running Saturday Night Live segment "Deep Thoughts." It also led to 10 subsequent books by Prather, including I Touch the Earth, the Earth Touches Me and Notes on Love and Courage.

The Prathers built a home on Tano Road in Santa Fe. After friends lost a young son, Hugh got involved in grief counseling, which led to him to found what he called The Dispensable Church. In 1984, after receiving an advance for two books, the Prathers and their two young sons moved to Patagonia, Ariz. They later lived in Santa Cruz, Calif. and then Tucson, where Prather, who had never been to a seminary, became the associate minister of St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church.

Carlos White, 68
Restaurant owner, Nov. 21

Carlos White helped cure countless hangovers for the city's populace during the nearly 25 years he ran Carlos' Gosp'l Cafe.

He moved to Santa Fe in 1979 and worked for several restaurants, including a sandwich shop on West San Francisco Street — around the site where Starbucks is now — before buying the business and renaming it Carlos' Gosp'l Cafe in 1985. A year later, White moved the eatery to 125 Lincoln Plaza, where he remained until 2005.

"Business really took off once he moved there," recalled friend Reggie Cox, who worked for Carlos for about 15 years. "People would eat there two or three times a week." Among the cafe's popular sandwich choices were the Gertrude Stein, the Jack Dempsey and the Miles Standish.

There is some debate as to whether White actually came up with the recipe for Hangover Stew, a favorite among people who had imbibed a bit too much the night before.

Cotton White said his brother, who received a Bachelor of Science degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 1969 and served in the Peace Corps in Brazil, developed an early appreciation for gospel music and studied the Bible so well that "he could tell you more about it than any preacher I ever talked to."

He was also known for giving opportunities to people who desperately needed them. "He took in so many different people and put them to work," Sheila Burns said. "People who may have had a hard time getting a job elsewhere just by the way they looked — the younger set, or the 'fringe' people."

Late in 2005, White left the Lincoln Avenue location after a dispute with his landlord over back rent. But after moving the restaurant to the Design Center on Cerrillos Road, White closed it for good in July 2009.

Don Meredith, 72
Dallas Cowboy, football player, broadcaster, Dec. 5

Don Meredith, a founding member of the Dallas Cowboys and Monday Night Football broadcasts before his semi-retirement to Santa Fe 26 years ago, was known for his folksy humor and hijinks —what booth-mate Howard Cosell called "Texas corn pone."

In all, Meredith worked 12 seasons on Monday Night Football, and when he retired in 1984, he made few public appearances, choosing instead to have a private life in Santa Fe where he engaged in quiet philanthropy — including helping various Santa Fe charities and arts organizations, once appearing in a local United Way television spot. A golfer, he lent his presence and his 12 handicap to charity tournaments.

Meredith, who earned the nickname "Dandy Don" for his fun-loving personality, was an All-American quarterback his final two seasons at Southern Methodist University. He signed a personal-services contract with Dallas Cowboys founder Clint Murchison Jr. in 1959, two months before the franchise officially gained admittance into the NFL. A third-round pick of the Chicago Bears in the 1960 NFL draft, Meredith was traded to the Cowboys for future draft picks.

In 1965, Dallas coach Tom Landry made Meredith his starting quarterback, a position at which he endured bone-jarring punishment from defensive linemen. In 1966, Meredith took the Cowboys to the playoffs, where his team was beaten 34-27 by the Green Bay Packers. In 1967, it was the Packers again who eliminated Meredith's Cowboys from the playoffs, 21-17, in a game famously called the "Ice Bowl" because of the frigid weather conditions in Green Bay. "Coldest I've ever been, "Meredith said afterward.

Two years after abruptly retiring from the Cowboys, Meredith joined Cosell and Keith Jackson to call NFL games on ABC. A year later, Frank Gifford replaced Jackson. Meredith left ABC in 1973 and spent three years at NBC before returning to the Monday Night Football franchise at ABC in 1977. He retired in 1984, a year after Cosell retired.

Frederick Johnson, 71
Owner of Fred's Drive-In, Dec. 10

Fred Johnson's first job after moving to Albuquerque as teenager was washing root-beer mugs at an A&W drive-in.

In the early 1960s, the Harley-riding Johnson moved to Santa Fe to help a friend open an A&W on Cerrillos Road. Later, he opened what he called his "little hole-in-the wall" drive-in on Cerrillos Road and Baca Street.

Among Fred's customers in the 1960s was future Mayor Sam Pick, whose family owned White Swan Laundry across the street.

But it was teenagers who formed the hard-core clientele of Fred's Drive-in. On any given night, especially weekends, the lot was always full of teens and their cars. For years, it was the place to meet your friends on Friday and Saturday night to make plans and find out where that night's party was going to be.

Johnson expanded in the early 1970s, opening Fred's No. 2 at 1718 Cerrillos Road. But by this time, the fast-food market was beginning to change. New national franchises like McDonald's had started to move into Santa Fe. "I couldn't compete with their advertising budgets, " Johnson recalled in 1998. "Most of my advertising was done in the form of sponsoring Little League baseball teams, intramural basketball and softball teams, bowling leagues."

In the late 1970s, the entire Fred's Drive-in operation was moved to 2601 Cerrillos Road, which had housed an A&W Root Beer drive-in. The restaurant closed in 1982.

After the drive-in closed, Fred Johnson sold real estate in Santa Fe. For many years, he worked in the electronics department of Sears. In recent years, he operated a green-chile roasting business, Fred's Socorro Chile, at College Plaza South, his son said. The family also operated a food cart that sold chile dogs and Frito pies at the International Folk Art Market and Spanish Market.

José Amadeo Gallegos, 87
Barber, Dec. 18

Longtime local barber José Amadeo Gallegos served in the U.S. Army in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and in China during World War II.

He was a member of the 124th Cavalry Regiment, the last horse-mounted regiment of the U.S. Army, according to Charles Padilla, a local life-insurance agent, author and friend. He was stationed in the mountains of northern Burma, utilizing pack mules to resupply units deep in enemy territory. In May 1945, his unit flew over 'the Hump' at the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains to Kunming, China, Padilla said.

Even though they were losing, Japanese soldiers continued to fiercely resist Allied advances, and Gallegos and his unit fought many pitched battles with the enemy as the war drew to a close.

Upon returning home, the Pojoaque native became a barber in Española and practiced that profession for the rest of his life. Most recently, he worked in the Solana Barber Shop, off West Alameda Street.

Gallegos, never far from a horse, worked for the Dunigan family, which owned the former Baca Ranch in the Jemez Mountains, now the Valles Caldera National Preserve.