Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Respected Civic Leader in Vado Dies

Roosevelt A. Boyer, President of the Vado Mutual Domestic Water Association and Vice President of the newly-authorized Lower Rio Grande Public Water Works Authority, died on Monday of complications stemming from a long battle with cancer. Mr. Boyer was born on July 2, 1934, and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1952. He was a descendant of Francis Boyer, who in 1920 led a group of black families from Blackdom, a settlement he founded near Roswell, New Mexico, to the Mesilla Valley, where he founded the community of Vado.

Mr. Boyer traveled to Santa Fe this Spring with other board members of the Berino, Vado, San Miguel, Mesquite, and Desert Sands mutual domestic water associations to lobby for the passage of HB 185, which created the Lower Rio Grande Water Works Authority which will merge the five associations into one. He led a long and active life of civic and spiritual engagement.

Viewing will be Thursday, July 10, from 5-7 p.m. at Getz Funeral Home. Memorial services will be held at the Bethel Second Baptist Church at 405 E. Hadley, Las Cruces, at 10 a.m. on Friday July 11.

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