Dear WHA Membership,

I regretfully write to inform you that Dr. Arthur "Art" Gómez, western history scholar, died on March 11, 2022, in an automobile accident near Maxwell, New Mexico. He was 75 years old. This news did not reach the Western History Association last year, so we felt it should be important to inform members as soon as possible. 

Gómez was an active member of the WHA and served on numerous committees including multiple Nominating, Local Arrangements, and Program committees; the Autry and Athearn Award committees; as well as the Western Historical Quarterly Board of Editors and WHA Council. You can access his obituary here to learn more about Dr. Gómez's life.

You can also read more about Dr. Gómez's significant contributions to the field of western history and the WHA in a message written by WHA member Chris Huggard and Gómez's wife, Penny. 

Sincerely,

Elaine Nelson, WHA Executive Director

Arthur Raymond Gómez (Dec. 5, 1946-March 11, 2022)

It is with a heavy heart that we submit the obituary of Arthur “Art” Raymond Gómez. On his way to his aunt Ruth Lobato’s funeral in Denver to sing at the memorial, Art perished in an automobile accident. On March 11, 2022, as he traveled north on Interstate 25, near Maxwell, New Mexico, he either hit black ice or caught a wind shear, causing his new truck to crash. The isolation caused by the Covid pandemic delayed news getting to many of his professional colleagues.

Born on December 5, 1946, in Cortez, Colorado, “Artie” as he was known in his youth was born into a family of the American West. He was the third son of Bernarda Valdez-Lobato and Everardo Ramón “Ray” Gómez. The family had lost two infant boys Robert and James, so Art became the lone son. He had two sisters, the late-Angela Marie, seven years his senior, and Cynthia “Cyndi” Kathryn Gómez, six years his junior. The family moved to Denver in 1950 when Art’s father decided to work in the wholesale lumber business after having worked in the sawmill community of McPhee, Colorado. Ray had served as a radio waist-gunner on a B-26 Martin Marauder, flying 63 missions over Europe during World War II, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. Mr. Gómez instilled in Art a deep appreciation of narrative history often quizzing him on the stories he shared from the books, developing in Art the analytical skills he later tapped into as a professional historian.

In 1956, the family moved to Durango, Colorado, so Art’s father could start his wood molding company, Las Animas Wood Products. While attending Durango High School, Art earned a reputation as a high-level athlete, playing football, basketball, and track (1964 state champions). One teammate reflected that he “ran like a gazelle.” Choosing not to follow his father into the lumbering business, he did reflect often on this decision. He remained proud of his father, however, dedicating Forests Under Fire (2001), a book he co-edited with Chris Huggard, to his father and his brothers in the industry. When logging waned in the Southwest, he quoted his father in the volume: “There are only a few of us left. Weyerhauser, Georgia Pacific, and your uncle [Art] and me.”

When Art himself returned in 1974 from his four-year tour of duty in Vietnam having served in the U.S. Air Force as a translator of Chinese Mandarin, he related in the preface to the book that “in the isolated world of southwestern Colorado, it seemed to me that only one industrial endeavor beckoned to vigorous Hispanic males, and that was the lumber industry.” This reflection later resonated with those who knew Art well because he detested being stereotyped as “just a Chicano historian” because he viewed himself as a generalist of the history of the twentieth- century West, especially concerning economics, public lands, and the National Park Service. He was Hispanic, of course, but he simply wanted to be seen as an American, a western American who studied and wrote about the Southwest, in particular.

Still, he retained a deep appreciation of and pride in his roots. His love of his heritage was reflected in his music. After having played in the Rock band, “Ezra,” while attending Fort Lewis College after his military service, he devoted his musical talents later in life to performing countless mariachi songs and Mexican corridos with other bands and individually. At Western History Association conferences, he sang and played guitar in his room that at times led to hotel officials calling off late-night sing-a-longs with Virginia Scharff and other musicians who were always surrounded by the “UNM mafia,” as the western historians from the University of New Mexico became known in the 1990s. Art was beloved for his friendly demeanor and fun-loving personality and admired for his unique intellect and insightfulness. As a professional historian, he quietly made a name for himself applying theoretical and practical concepts in his narrative histories. He served on the WHA nominating committee that chose Richard W. Etulain for president, a selection he advocated for and was very proud of. He also served on the council of the American Historical Association.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in history and Spanish at Fort Lewis College and a master’s degree in Asian Studies at the University of Arizona in the 1970s, Art went on to earn a PhD in 1990 in the history of the 20th Century US West under renowned historian Gerald D. Nash. Even before he finished the doctorate, he was hired by the National Park Service in 1987. This position, he claimed, assured him he was on the right track professionally. A webpage of the American Historical Association quoted him concerning his choice to seek a PhD in history: “As a graduate student, I consistently questioned the importance of my educational vocation. It was not until my career in preservation history began, however, that I came to fully appreciate the meaning of the word 'professionalism.'" He began his career at San Antonio Missions National Historic Park before serving as a regional historian from 1990 on for most of his two-plus decades in the Intermountain Region of the Park Service in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Among his favorite duties was when he served as the history tour guide and translator for his Mexican counterparts in the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and when he completed numerous interviews of Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor for an oral history project during the 50th anniversary commemoration. He received numerous service honors, including two Outstanding Achievement awards from different offices in the Park Service. He also completed countless historical reports on a wide variety of topics from Chamizal National Memorial to Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the Amarillo (Texas) Helium works, among others.

He and his wife Penny shared a deep appreciation of history and archeology, her avocational field of training. She was a museum educator who immersed herself in the diverse cultures of New Mexico, teaching children and training docents at the Museum of International Folk Art and the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. Together they collaborated on several projects, including an oral history one involving Park Service officials. Penny, Art said, “bolsters what little I know about archeology while I share my historical knowledge with her.” Their combined interests created a magical relationship based on their love of the rich southwestern past and of each other.

Art wrote numerous essays and book chapters in his career. His publications are highlighted by several books: A Most Singular Country: A History of Occupation in the Big Bend (Brigham Young Univ. Press, 1990); Quest for the Golden Circle: The Four Corners and the Metropolitan West, 1945-1970 (Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1994); co-edited with Chris Huggard, Forests Under Fire: A Century of Ecosystem Mismanagement in the Southwest (Univ. of AZ Press, 2001); authored with photographs by Lucian Niemeyer New Mexico: Images of a Land and Its People (UNM Press, 2004); and, co-author with Bob Spude and Joe Sanchez, New Mexico: A History (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2013).

Art is survived by Christine Penelope “Penny” Gómez Taylor, his wife of 32 years, his sister Cyndi Ranson and husband Nick, son Paul Arthur Gómez, stepchildren John Caldwell, Sally Horrobin, and Ellen Caldwell and their families. He was preceded in death by his parents, sister Angie, and youngest son Christian Michael Gómez. He is greatly missed by his colleagues in the history profession. Two weeks after his passing, colleague Bill Gwaltney declared, “He was a lovely man and will be very much missed.” We will never forget you, Art Gómez.

Penny Gómez Taylor, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Chris Huggard, Fayetteville, Arkansas

July 24, 2023