
Los Alamos County is unique in also being a municipality. “In the United States, a ‘municipality’is usually understood as a city, town, village.”
In the matter of naming public properties for individuals, being “recently deceased” should not be a factor in considering a person over others who are at least as deserving.
The naming of public facilities is not a trivial matter. Those dedicated to individuals should be proudly set forth as a collection. At the moment, much of the naming information for all those facilities that have been dedicated to someone’s memory is rather haphazard; most unavailable on the web, and what is available is NOT in a readily searchable, singular, place.
Below is what I can find on the web with l
ots of holes! Practically nothing about most of the honorees – best if the honoree has been cited as a “living treasure” – of course, many of the honorees were honored quickly after death and “living treasure recognition” was not begun until 1999.No one should have to look in more than a single place to get all of this and the associated relevant information. I have undoubtedly overlooked some – then, again, I’m not the County’s chronicler-historian.
Date dedicated listed first – most not found on the Internet. LAPS/UNM/AEC(?) (LANL dedicated buildings are not included, except Bradbury Science Museum, which was relocated; Anderson Memorial Overlook is in Santa Fe County; two presidents are listed, but I have added none of the vise presidents who have visited.)
- Sullivan Field (Earle D. Sullivan, Director for Community Relationships at LASL from 1947 until he died in 1951 after suffering a heart attack)
- Griffith Gym (Thurston (“Turk”) A Griffith, Jr. 1940-1965) – Griffith Hall at Fort Gordon Garrison in Augusta, Ga., in the late 1960s, was named after Griffith (most recent posting in The SF New Mexican – Jan. 14, 2012) – Purple Heart and Bronze Star
- 1964 The John F. Kennedy Memorial at Los Alamos High School (County?)
- Duane W Smith Auditorium (superintendent of LAPS for 16 years; 1931-1979)
- Louie Cernicek Memorial Soccer Tournament, but no physical entity (Also is David “Louie” Cernicek 1924-2001) a Los Alamos “living-treasure”; no soccer field named for him – brought soccer and soccer-fame to Los Alamos
- 2013 Jeannette O. Wallace (1934-2011) Lecture Hall at UNM-Los Alamos
- Ashley Pond Park (Ashley Pond, the founder of the boys’ school in 1917)
LAC/AEC/DOE (LANL dedicated buildings are not included, except Bradbury Science Museum, which was relocated; Anderson Memorial Overlook is in Santa Fe County; two presidents are listed, but I have added none of the VPs who have visited.)
Editor’s note: Visit the County’s Open Forum for more information on this issue:http://www.losalamosnm.us/gov/Pages/PublicCommentForum.aspx#peak_democracy