44th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2000

HONORING JAMES RAYMOND TOULOUSE AS HE APPROACHES HIS EIGHTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY.

WHEREAS, James Raymond Toulouse was born on April 14, 1919 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, he was the third son of Laura Belle Cougar Toulouse and Mayor Joseph H. Toulouse, who had moved to Albuquerque from Santa Fe in 1904; and

WHEREAS, James, or Jim as he is popularly known, graduated from Albuquerque high school and attended the university of New Mexico on a football scholarship, graduating in 1940; and

WHEREAS, Jim became the sports editor for the Albuquerque Tribune and married university of New Mexico student Charlotte Mae Johnson on August 31, 1941; and

WHEREAS, he honorably served our country during World War II in the United States navy; and

WHEREAS, he used the GI bill to attend law school at Georgetown university in Washington, D.C. with such future New Mexican leaders as former senator Joseph Montoya and former district court judge Tibo Chavez; and

WHEREAS, while in Washington, he was employed by future senator Clinton Anderson, then secretary of agriculture, and wrote speeches for Harry S. Truman; and

WHEREAS, he graduated from law school in 1949; and

WHEREAS, immediately following graduation, he returned to New Mexico and was admitted to practice law by the New Mexico state bar association in July 1949; and

WHEREAS, Jim joined the law practice of W. Peter McAtee, eventually forming the firm McAtee, Toulouse, Marchiando, Ruud and Gallagher; and

WHEREAS, the firm dissolved in the mid-1960s and Jim has headed his own law firm since that time; and

WHEREAS, Jim practices all sorts of law, from civil to criminal, medical-legal to civil rights; and

WHEREAS, he is known for the amount of pro bono work he has always done and, at the age of eighty, he is still practicing law;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that congratulations be extended to a noble New Mexican, James Raymond Toulouse, as he approaches his eighty-first birthday.