HM 46

1A MEMORIAL
2  RECOGNIZING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HURLEY FAMILY'S
3  CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEW MEXICO AND THE WORLD; HONORING THE NEW
4  MEXICO MILITARY MUSEUM AND ITS COMMITMENT TO PRESERVING AND
5  DISSEMINATING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT NEW MEXICO'S MILITARY HISTORY.
6
7WHEREAS, Major General Patrick J. Hurley, who brought
8  his family to New Mexico in 1935, was one of the greatest
9  diplomats and veterans of major world wars in history; and
10      WHEREAS, General Hurley began his military career as a
11 captain in the Oklahoma national guard; and
12      WHEREAS, General Hurley was a member of the American
13 expeditionary force in World War I and was deployed to
14 France, during which time he rose to the rank of lieutenant
15 colonel; and
16      WHEREAS, he was appointed as assistant secretary of war
17 and later secretary of war in the Hoover administration; and
18      WHEREAS, when the United States entered World War II, he
19 was promoted to brigadier general and went to the far east as
20 General George C. Marshall's personal representative to
21 examine the possibility of relieving United States troops on
22 the island of Bataan; and
23      WHEREAS, General Hurley was appointed by President
24 Franklin D. Roosevelt as ambassador to New Zealand and later
25 as ambassador to China; and  HM 46
                                                                 Page 1
1WHEREAS, General Hurley also served as President
2  Roosevelt's special representative to Russia and was the
3  first American to visit the Eastern front; and
4WHEREAS, for his military service, General Hurley
5  received several awards, including the army distinguished
6  service medal with oak leaf cluster; silver star; legion of
7  merit; distinguished flying cross; purple heart; and World
8  War I and World War II victory medals; and
9WHEREAS, after retirement from military service, Patrick
10 Hurley served as president of the uranium institute of
11 America, a board member of the United Western Minerals
12 company, a grand consul of Sigma Chi fraternity and a member
13 of Phi Beta Kappa; and
14WHEREAS, Patrick was active in New Mexico politics,
15 running as the Republican party candidate for a United States
16 senate seat in 1946, 1948 and 1952; and
17WHEREAS, Patrick was named to the New Mexico hall of
18 fame, and after his 1963 passing, he was called "one of New
19 Mexico's truly great men" by then-Governor Jack M. Campbell;
20 and
21WHEREAS, Patrick's son Wilson Hurley continued his
22 father's legacy of military service and significant
23 contribution to the state and nation; and
24WHEREAS, Wilson Hurley attended the Los Alamos ranch
25 school, studied under New Mexico artists such as John Young-     HM 46
                                                                  Page 2
1  Hunter, Theodore Van Soelen and Doel Reed and later attended
2  the United States military academy at West Point, where he
3  graduated in June 1945; and
4WHEREAS, Wilson served as a pilot in the United States
5  army air corps and the United States air force, which
6  included a thirty-month tour in the Philippines and south
7  Pacific; and
8WHEREAS, Wilson returned to New Mexico in 1952 to
9  practice law after completing law school at George Washington
10 university and soon began flying with the 188th tactical
11 fighter squadron of the New Mexico air national guard; and
12WHEREAS, Wilson was deployed as a United States air
13 force liaison and forward air controller in the Vietnam
14 conflict and the Korea conflict, during which time he
15 achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and received the
16 distinguished flying cross; and
17WHEREAS, Wilson gave up his law practice at the age of
18 forty to devote himself full time to painting; and
19WHEREAS, since his first solo art exhibition at the
20 Panhandle-Plains historical museum in Canyon, Texas, in 1971,
21 Wilson has had more than one thousand two hundred paintings
22 sold to private and corporate collectors, and at least eleven
23 museums across the nation hold collections of his paintings;
24 and
25WHEREAS, Wilson's work has won numerous awards for his    HM 46
                                                                 Page 3
1  artistic talent, including the 1977 trustees' award from the
2  national cowboy hall of fame, the 1984 prix de west award
3  from the national academy of western art and the Eiteljorg
4  museum of American Indians and western art award for
5  excellence in western art in 1991; and
6WHEREAS, Wilson was named a fellow of the American
7  society of aviation artists, was elected to the Oklahoma hall
8  of fame in 1996 and the Tulsa hall of fame in 2001 and became
9  the Albuquerque museum foundation's second notable New
10 Mexican in 2002; and
11WHEREAS, many of Wilson's large-scale landscape
12 paintings are on display in public buildings, including the
13 Albuquerque international sunport and the Oklahoma state
14 capitol; and
15WHEREAS, the New Mexico military museum was established
16 to honor the service and sacrifice of New Mexicans in the
17 armed forces, originating as the Bataan memorial museum
18 honoring the state's national guard units involved in World
19 War II and the lives of those lost in the Bataan death march;
20 and
21WHEREAS, the museum is housed in a historic Santa Fe
22 armory and now preserves and interprets New Mexico's full
23 military history across all eras and conflicts; and
24WHEREAS, in 2025, the museum inducted Wilson Hurley into
25 the New Mexico national guard's hall of honor, and the museum    HM 46
                                                                  Page 4
1  is hosting an exhibition of Wilson Hurley's work beginning
2  February 12, 2026;
3NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF
4  REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the house of
5  representatives recognize the significant contributions to
6  New Mexico and to the world by the Hurley family and honor
7  the New Mexico military museum for its commitment to
8  preserving and disseminating knowledge about the state's
9  military history; and
10      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
11 transmitted to the department of military affairs, the
12 adjutant general of New Mexico, the director of the New Mexico
13 military museum and the chair of the New Mexico military
14 museum foundation.  HM 46
                                                                  Page 5
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25