David Diaz

Mayor, David D. Diaz of Hurley, entered eternal rest early Saturday morning February 24, 2018 at his residence surrounded by his family.

Visitation will take place on Friday, March 2, 2018 at five o’clock in the evening at Baca’s Funeral Chapels with the Prayer Vigil and Rosary to follow at six o’clock.  The Funeral Liturgy will be held on Saturday, March 3, 2018 at nine-thirty in the morning at Infant Jesus Shrine in Hurley.  Concluding services and burial will follow at the Hurley Cemetery with full military honors.  Officiating will be Father Francisco Diaz.  Serving as pallbearers will be David Diaz Jr., Pedro Diaz, Richard Diaz, Tony Diaz, Pedro Diaz, Jr., Ben Candelaria, Jared Diaz and Eric Martinez. Honorary pallbearers will be Jeffrey Diaz, Martin Diaz, Juan Manuel Arredondo, Jose Arredondo and all of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He was born January 20th, 1924 in North Hurley to Pedro and Maria Diaz. He married Maria Silva and together had 11 children. 8 boys and 3 girls, losing a son at birth. Together they raised their children in Hurley. Later in life he married Priscilla Arredondo, who had 2 sons and 2 daughters. A combined of 14 siblings, the Diaz's and Arredondo's. David had a very adventurous life. He started working in Hurley at the age of 18 at the Santa Fe Railroad as a laborer. Two years later he was drafted into the Army, where he served under General Patton during the Battle of the Bulge, Germany. He received the Good Conduct Ribbon, American Theater Ribbon, and European African Middle Eastern Ribbon, with One Battle Star. He received an honorable discharge and came home safely to his family and resumed working for the Santa Fe Railroad. He worked for 44 years, starting as a laborer working his way up to a Master Mechanic Superintendent. He was interested in airplanes at a very young age. He received his pilot license after he came back from the war and later received his pilot instructor’s license. There was a small landing strip behind the Santa Fe Depot where he learned to fly in a Bi-wing open cockpit airplane. When the Grant County Airport was built, he taught may people how to fly and was a very successful instructor and pilot. His passion was doing aerobatics and performing stunt shows on the 4^th of July at the airport. His sons, daughters, and grand children that had the chance to fly with him, loved to go up and enjoy the aerobatics. In the sixties he flew the A-26 Slurry bomber for the Forest Service dropping slurry on forest fires in the Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico. At Christmas time, he enjoyed getting a friend dressed as Santa Claus and fly Santa with a bag of goodies, land on Diaz Ave, and have Santa give goodies to the kids. He began his political career in Hurley as a town councilman. This lasted for10 years and then he ran for Mayor of Hurley, a position he held for 34 consecutive years. He holds the record in New Mexico for the longest consecutive years as Mayor in any Town, Village, etc. During this time he also was elected Grant County Commissioner. He also served as a Chairman County Commissioner, a political post lasting 10 years. During this time he worked very hard to acquire grant money for up keep and maintenance of the Airport. For his hard work the Commissioners named the Airport Terminal after him. “David D. Diaz Airport Terminal”. They also named the road from Hurley to North Hurley, “Diaz Ave”. We are all very proud of your accomplishments Dad.

David Diaz is survived by his wife Priscilla Diaz; seven sons; David Diaz Jr. (Mary Lou), Pedro Diaz (Irma), Martin Diaz, Richard Diaz, Jeffrey Diaz, Michael Diaz (Carla) and Tony Diaz; three daughters; Olivia Diaz, Michelle Candelaria (Ricky) and Donna Figueroa (Mike); grandchildren, Brian, Pedro Jr. (Michelle), Adrienne, Jade, Deseree, Jacque (Dan), David, Camille (Adam), Jared, Justin (Keana), Jerome (Valerie), Antoinette, Brandi, Conrad, Mary (Pat), Eric (Michelle), Jessica (Sonny), Ben (Sierra), Linsdsey (Bill) and Jillian (Lane); two stepsons, Juan Manuel Arredondo and Jose Arredondo; two stepdaughters; Angie Carrazco (Manuel) and Priscilla Ann Arredondo; step-grandchildren, Carlos, Arty, Anisa, Zachary, Aiden, Alexis, Manny Jr., Alex, Antoinette, Kaelah, Abram; 22 great-grandchildren; four great-great grandchildren; also surviving David are his two sisters, Juanita Martinez and Lupe Guadiana.  He was preceded in death by his parents; first wife, Maria S. Diaz; son, Napoleon Diaz, great grandson, Cruz Miller and his sister, Mary Ellen Huerta.

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