2016 by the University of New Mexico Press
All rights reserved. Published 2016
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Malry, Lenton, 1931 author.
Title: Lets roll this train : my life in New Mexico education, business, and politics / Lenton Malry.
Other titles: My life in New Mexico education, business, and politics
Description: Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, [2016] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015045707 (print) | LCCN 2015046958 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826357434 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780826357441 (Electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Malry, Lenton, 1931 | PoliticiansNew MexicoBiography. | EducatorsNew MexicoBiography. | African AmericansNew MexicoBiography. | LegislatorsNew MexicoBiography. | New Mexico. Legislature. House of RepresentativesBiography. | New MexicoPolitics and government1951 | New MexicoRace relationsAnecdotes. | Bernalillo County (N.M.)Biography.
Classification: LCC F801.4.M39 A3 2016 (print) | LCC F801.4.M39 (ebook) | DDC 328.73/092dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045707
Cover photograph courtesy of Lenton Malry
Designed by Felicia Cedillos
All images are courtesy of the Malry family collection except where otherwise indicated.
The Center for Regional Studies at the University of New Mexico generously provided funding to support publication of this book.
Foreword
For ten years Representative Lenton Malry sat with his sidekicks in the New Mexico legislatureicons like Raymond Sanchez, Joe Lang, Aubrey Dunn, and a host of other hombres (men). He became a member of the group of intellectuals who headed a thundering herd of education advocates that included Governors Jerry Apodaca and Bruce King. Malry was a leader in supporting education on all levels.
As the president of the University of New Mexico from 1975 to 1982, I can attest to the fact that the university was one of the beneficiaries of his tireless and effective leadership.
I look back on my forty years of association with Malry with pride and gratitude for his efforts. In my time at the university, Malry made good things happen. Between 1978 and 1981 the University of New Mexico received $3.8 million in supplementary appropriations for hospital equipment and $300,000 in supplementary funding for library acquisitions. In 1980 the legislature approved a special supplementary appropriation of $5 million per year to upgrade the science and engineering laboratories at all the state universities. In 1982 the University of New Mexico ranked third nationally in the increase of appropriations for higher education (131 percent), faculty salaries had increased 65 percent in six years, and the university began more than $57 million worth of new construction. Approximately 170 new faculty slots were added on the main campus. These things didnt just happen. Good people like Lenton Malry made them happen through leadership, oratory, and, on appropriate occasions, arm-twisting.
If you ramble around New Mexico, you will find that Representative Lenton Malry is a noted name. Black, not Hispanic, he is what Latinos and Native Americans in the state call a tybo, which means a black white man. Whatever! The states combined minority populationAfrican Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americansaccounts for 55 percent of the population. Together these groups form a powerful bloc in any legislative session. And often, by voting as a bloc, they could and did make good things happen, such as supporting education on all levels. During his time in state government, Malry was one of the prominent leaders in this voting bloc.
Despite his sometimes modest self-image, Malry is not the ace of spades or even the king of hearts. He is too muscular to be the queen of diamonds. His main forte is his role as the jack of clubs: he wallops with a heavy hand.
In his early life he had great mentors, including perhaps one of the nations premier football coaches, Grambling Colleges Eddie Robinson (whose dictum was that if you didnt go to church on Sunday, you wouldnt get in the game the next Saturday).
Malrys time in the US Air Force also changed his life. His superior officers (if there were any) didnt care what color he wasthey demanded efficiency, diligence, and intelligence. And while his compadres frittered away their off-duty hours in bars and taverns, Malry took advantage of his time with the British Army Air Corps to study in some of the best English universities. The elegance of England rubbed off on the maverick Malry.
Malrys leadership has not been confined to New Mexico. He is a hero of the Mountain West and has been a leader in higher education for the entire West. As the president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), he came to know the governors and legislators in every western state, and he traveled to the great public universities and colleges in each one to study them. Not every state in the West has a medical school or a college of dentistry or veterinary medicine. Through WICHE, Malry paved the way for the graduates of universities in the have-not states to get their doctoral degrees through admission to professional graduate schools in other states in the West.
Malry even helped convince the sometimes reluctant legislative bodies to pay the tab for the out-of-state students who were admitted to these programs. So when a medical doctor is setting a broken bone, a dentist is filling or pulling a tooth, or a veterinarian is caring for a sick horse, one should think of and give thanks for the leadership of Malry.
Throughout his life Lenton Malry has had a special passion for education. As a student, a teacher, an administrator, and a legislator, he has touched all the bases and taken advantage of the opportunities that came his way.
Today he is a shining example of what an individual at his or her best might be. The narrative of his journey to become one of New Mexicos living legends should be an inspiration to those who would aspire to learn and serve and lead.
William E. Davis
FORMER PRESIDENT
University of New Mexico
Preface
It is not unique that I have a story to tell. Everyone in this world does. Some simply have more to say than others. However, it is not common for a person to write his or her story as an autobiography.
The reason I have written my story is to answer questions often asked by my family and friends. I considered that now was the most opportune time to write the details, while my memory is still relatively clear.
The story begins with a poor black child living on a small farm in rural northwest Louisiana, and then it traces the paths that led to my attending high school in Shreveport, attending Grambling College at age sixteen, graduating, joining the air force, and then being stationed in London, England. The story then weaves its way back to the United States, where I began teaching at Texas College and met the woman who would become my wife, Joy Dell Green. Next I chronicle our experience teaching and living on the Navajo reservation before moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I continued my professional teaching life and began my political life. Finally I discuss my retirement and some thoughts about my journey.
