Elaine Briseño

Congrats to budding doc, author, engineers

The main campus library now bears his name.

Most people use retirement to take their foot off the gas and relax. Former Rio Rancho Mayor Pat D’Arco, who died Jan. 13, 2012, was not one of those people.

The Ancestral Puebloans in New Mexico once called an area on Pajarito Plateau in the Jemez Mountains home. In 1916, the federal government designated it part of the national park system and christened it Bandelier National Monument in order to preserve the Native American archeological sites there.

This column usually explores interesting monikers gracing buildings, roads, parks, monuments and geographic features in modern-day New Mexico, but today’s column is going to be a little different.