SANTA FE, N.M. — Jerry Apodaca, a Democrat who grew to become New Mexico’s first Hispanic governor in 54 years when he took workplace in 1975, has died. He was 88.

He died at his dwelling in Santa Fe on Wednesday after what could have been a stroke, his son Jeff Apodaca mentioned.

His son talked concerning the legacy his father left behind, one which fellow Democratic politicians say paved the best way for extra minorities to enter public workplace and tackle management roles in company boardrooms throughout the nation.

He took his function significantly, mentioned the youthful Apodaca, an Albuquerque businessman and former media government.

“I used to meet with people in Fortune 500 companies, and there was not a meeting that went by where I wouldn’t run into a Latino executive who’d ask me, ‘Are you Jerry’s son?’ They would tell me so many stories about what he’d done,” Jeff Apodaca informed the Santa Fe New Mexican. “General Motors, McDonald’s … he opened doors for Latinos in the ’70s and ’80s.”

Apodaca ran an insurance coverage enterprise in Las Cruces earlier than being elected to the state Senate in 1966. He was 40 when he was inaugurated as governor on Jan. 1, 1975, making him the primary Hispanic governor in New Mexico since Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo left workplace in 1921.

During his four-year time period, Apodaca’s administration reorganized state authorities to its present type by creating a cupboard system with 12 departments. Delivering on a marketing campaign pledge, his administration consolidated businesses and eradicated some boards and commissions.

In an interview shortly earlier than his gubernatorial time period ended, Apodaca cited the federal government reorganization and institution of a statewide kindergarten system as main accomplishments. He claimed his administration made authorities extra open and attentive to residents.

Apodaca frequently held open workplace hours the place residents may meet with him. His administration applied tax reduction applications, together with tax credit, tax rebates and tax fee reductions, however Apodaca was criticized for appointing shut buddies to public positions.

“I didn’t find any logical reason to exclude anyone from the administration just because he helped in the campaign or because he was a friend,” he mentioned in December 1978. “I think the record speaks for itself. The success of this administration does not rest entirely on my shoulders.”

Apodaca additionally battled allegations linking him to organized crime figures.

While campaigning in 1982 for U.S. Senate, Apodaca disputed claims by a convicted felon that he had accepted a $10,000 bribe as governor in return for granting a pardon or parole for a New Mexico inmate. Apodaca referred to as the accusation “a total fabrication.”

A grand jury requested by Apodaca finally discovered no proof of perjury.

He misplaced the Democratic major for U.S. Senate to Jeff Bingaman, who went on to serve for 30 years.

Apodaca, who performed halfback on the University of New Mexico within the mid-Fifties, was appointed in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter as chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. While governor, he ran and accomplished the 1978 Boston Marathon.

After leaving workplace, he resigned from the health panel after being elected to the board of administrators for tobacco big Phillip Morris.

Carter additionally interviewed Apodaca for Secretary of Education when the U.S. Department of Education was created. The job went as a substitute to Shirley Hufstedler, a federal appellate choose in California.

After leaving workplace, Apodaca endured a sequence of troubled enterprise ventures, together with failed actual property offers that led to a chapter submitting. In later years, he sought to return to politics however misplaced the Democratic primaries for U.S. Senate in 1982 and for governor in 1998.

Apodaca additionally ventured into publishing, taking up Hispanic journal and Vista journal, each English-language periodicals geared toward Hispanic readers. He additionally served on the University of New Mexico’s board of regents from 1985 to 1991.

Apodaca began in politics as a state senator from Las Cruces, serving 4 phrases from 1966-76. In the 1974 gubernatorial race, he defeated Republican Joe Skeen by simply 3,752 votes. Campaigning in the course of the post-Watergate period, Apodaca portrayed himself as “The Man Nobody Owns.”

Born Raymond S. Apodaca in Las Cruces on Oct. 3, 1934, Apodaca graduated from UNM in 1957 and started educating historical past and training highschool soccer in Albuquerque. He later moved again to Las Cruces, opened an insurance coverage enterprise and branched out into retail and actual property.

He is survived by his ex-wife, Clara, three daughters, Cindy, Carolyn, Judy, and two sons, Jerry Jr. and Jeff.

• The story consists of biographical materials compiled by former AP reporter Tim Korte.

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