Throughout a long lifetime of service to his community, county and country, David Diaz knew how to make an impression, be that on the ground or in the air.
Diaz died on Saturday, February 24, at the age of 94, right where he was born, lived and served, in Hurley, N.M. Diaz’s son Pedro Diaz — one of 11 children — said his father loved his town to his core, never wanting to live elsewhere. But, his heart was also devoted to public service and led him through what Pedro called “a life of adventure.”
A World War II veteran, Diaz served under Gen. George S. Patton at the infamous Battle of the Bulge in Germany. He returned home a decorated veteran following the war and devoted himself to family, and a love of planes, trains and automobiles.
Pedro said that Diaz earned his pilot license soon upon returning from the war and began a lifelong love of flying. He learned to fly first in an open-cockpit biplane and flew for his own pleasure. Over the years, though, he wanted to share his skills and joy.
“He soon got good at aerial acrobatics and began putting on stunt shows on the Fourth of July,” Pedro said. “And at Christmas he would have a friend dress as Santa Claus and land him in Hurley for the children. Oh, did he love that!”
Diaz also flew slurry flights fighting forest fires in the Gila National Forest.
While on the ground, he gave 44 years to the Santa Fe Railroad Company, working his way up from laborer to master mechanic superintendent in the Hurley maintenance shop.
He gave just as many years as a civil servant. He served on the Hurley Town Council for 10 years before being elected mayor. And there he remained for 34 consecutive years, making him the longest-serving mayor in Hurley of course, but also the longest-running consecutive mayor in New Mexico state history.
It is telling that the lifelong public servant’s name is all over the Mining District. From the David Diaz Terminal at the Grant County Airport, to Hurley’s landmark Diaz Avenue, running the length of town, the man left a great impression on the county he served for so long.
Even to the town of Hurley’s current mayor, Fernando Martinez, when he thinks of a Hurley mayor, he thinks of Diaz.
“He was highly respected by everybody,” Martinez said. “I know I had the utmost respect for him. He is the only mayor I had really known. I was a young kid when he first became mayor, so from then through the time I grew up I saw him do so much.”
Martinez said Diaz helped make Hurley feel like a full town, rebuilding town hall and the town’s maintenance building, even the community’s roads.
“Before him our streets were in terrible shape,” he said. “He saw to getting the money to rebuild those streets for us, he gave us our curbs and our gutters. His administrations also allocated funds for tennis courts, basketball courts and lighting. He just did so much.”
Mayor Martinez also said Diaz was an expert at using his relationships, especially with the various companies which owned the county’s copper mines during his tenure at the town, to the benefit of his community.
“He was the people’s person,” Martinez said. “Everyone respected him. And the companies respected him and so they helped him and Hurley when he needed them.”
In addition to Diaz’s decades at Hurley’s helm, he was elected to the County Commission in the 1980s. A pilot and flight instructor himself, Diaz’s time with the county has been especially noted by his work improving the Grant County Airport, for which the county named the airport’s terminal after Diaz.
“He was awfully effective in getting the airport out there,” said former County Commissioner Henry Torres. “He taught a lot of people how to fly. He was effective and loyal as a mayor. He was a true public servant and will be sorely missed.”
Grandchildren remembered Diaz for his sense of humor and loving more than anything to show them the sky in his beloved airplanes.
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