HOUSE MEMORIAL 46

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Alan T. Martinez

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HURLEY FAMILY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEW MEXICO AND THE WORLD; HONORING THE NEW MEXICO MILITARY MUSEUM AND ITS COMMITMENT TO PRESERVING AND DISSEMINATING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT NEW MEXICO'S MILITARY HISTORY.

 

     WHEREAS, Major General Patrick J. Hurley, who brought his family to New Mexico in 1935, was one of the greatest diplomats and veterans of major world wars in history; and

     WHEREAS, General Hurley began his military career as a captain in the Oklahoma national guard; and

     WHEREAS, General Hurley was a member of the American expeditionary force in World War I and was deployed to France, during which time he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel; and

     WHEREAS, he was appointed as assistant secretary of war and later secretary of war in the Hoover administration; and

     WHEREAS, when the United States entered World War II, he was promoted to brigadier general and went to the far east as General George C. Marshall's personal representative to examine the possibility of relieving United States troops on the island of Bataan; and

     WHEREAS, General Hurley was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as ambassador to New Zealand and later as ambassador to China; and

     WHEREAS, General Hurley also served as President Roosevelt's special representative to Russia and was the first American to visit the Eastern front; and

     WHEREAS, for his military service, General Hurley received several awards, including the army distinguished service medal with oak leaf cluster; silver star; legion of merit; distinguished flying cross; purple heart; and World War I and World War II victory medals; and

     WHEREAS, after retirement from military service, Patrick Hurley served as president of the uranium institute of America, a board member of the United Western Minerals company, a grand consul of Sigma Chi fraternity and a member of Phi Beta Kappa; and

     WHEREAS, Patrick was active in New Mexico politics, running as the Republican party candidate for a United States senate seat in 1946, 1948 and 1952; and

     WHEREAS, Patrick was named to the New Mexico hall of fame, and after his 1963 passing, he was called "one of New Mexico's truly great men" by then-Governor Jack M. Campbell; and

     WHEREAS, Patrick's son Wilson Hurley continued his father's legacy of military service and significant contribution to the state and nation; and

     WHEREAS, Wilson Hurley attended the Los Alamos ranch school, studied under New Mexico artists such as John Young-Hunter, Theodore Van Soelen and Doel Reed and later attended the United States military academy at West Point, where he graduated in June 1945; and

     WHEREAS, Wilson served as a pilot in the United States army air corps and the United States air force, which included a thirty-month tour in the Philippines and south Pacific; and

     WHEREAS, Wilson returned to New Mexico in 1952 to practice law after completing law school at George Washington university and soon began flying with the 188th tactical fighter squadron of the New Mexico air national guard; and

     WHEREAS, Wilson was deployed as a United States air force liaison and forward air controller in the Vietnam conflict and the Korea conflict, during which time he achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and received the distinguished flying cross; and

     WHEREAS, Wilson gave up his law practice at the age of forty to devote himself full time to painting; and

     WHEREAS, since his first solo art exhibition at the Panhandle-Plains historical museum in Canyon, Texas, in 1971, Wilson has had more than one thousand two hundred paintings sold to private and corporate collectors, and at least eleven museums across the nation hold collections of his paintings; and

     WHEREAS, Wilson's work has won numerous awards for his artistic talent, including the 1977 trustees' award from the national cowboy hall of fame, the 1984 prix de west award from the national academy of western art and the Eiteljorg museum of American Indians and western art award for excellence in western art in 1991; and

     WHEREAS, Wilson was named a fellow of the American society of aviation artists, was elected to the Oklahoma hall of fame in 1996 and the Tulsa hall of fame in 2001 and became the Albuquerque museum foundation's second notable New Mexican in 2002; and

     WHEREAS, many of Wilson's large-scale landscape paintings are on display in public buildings, including the Albuquerque international sunport and the Oklahoma state capitol; and

     WHEREAS, the New Mexico military museum was established to honor the service and sacrifice of New Mexicans in the armed forces, originating as the Bataan memorial museum honoring the state's national guard units involved in World War II and the lives of those lost in the Bataan death march; and

     WHEREAS, the museum is housed in a historic Santa Fe armory and now preserves and interprets New Mexico's full military history across all eras and conflicts; and

     WHEREAS, in 2025, the museum inducted Wilson Hurley into the New Mexico national guard's hall of honor, and the museum is hosting an exhibition of Wilson Hurley's work beginning February 12, 2026;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the house of representatives recognize the significant contributions to New Mexico and to the world by the Hurley family and honor the New Mexico military museum for its commitment to preserving and disseminating knowledge about the state's military history; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the department of military affairs, the adjutant general of New Mexico, the director of the New Mexico military museum and the chair of the New Mexico military museum foundation.

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