Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 123, No. 74 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
March 26, 2014
www.rdrnews.com
Former editor, community leader McQuiddy dies RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Arthur Robert McQuiddy, former editor of the Roswell Mor ning Dispatch and longtime community leader, died Tuesday afternoon. McQuiddy, 95, gained international fame for being the newspaper editor during the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, but locally he was known as a strong advocate for many local organizations and institutions. “He always had a smile on his face and probably
was the most knowledgeable person there was about the UFO incident of anybody around,” said Charles Fischer, publisher of the Roswell Daily Record. “If you ever met him, he made everybody’s day feel brighter.” In 1948, he left the newspaper to become public relations director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and later joined U.S. Steel as director of media relations. In the early 1980s, he returned to Roswell after
On the ropes
retiring as senior vice president for corporate relations at International Harvester. McQuiddy was very well known outside Roswell. McQuiddy also has an Internet Movie Data Base entry for his role in “The Roswell Incident,” a 1995 TV documentary where he played himself. McQuiddy was born in Sedalia, Mo., in 1918. After serving as a Naval aviator during World War II, he moved to Roswell in 1946 to become the editor of the Roswell Morning Dispatch.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Aleen Hinkle McQuiddy, who was a native of Roswell and was the granddaughter of pioneer New Mexico Gov. James Fielding Hinkle. After retur ning to Roswell in the early ’80s, McQuiddy served as president of the Chaves County Historical Society, which is now the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico. He also served on the boards of the United Way, the Roswell Symphony, the Roswell Museum and Arts
WEDNESDAY
Center, the state of New Mexico Humanities Commission and the New Mexico Rehabilitation Center Foundation.
He also served as director of Conventions and Visitors Bureau and Economic Development specialist for Roswell through the Chamber of Commerce. “Whether you knew it or not, he probably touched most of the people’s lives in Roswell, either through his
Judge to decide if Campbell is fit to stand trial See MCQUIDDY, Page A3
RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Cadets at NMMI navigate the ropes course, Tuesday afternoon.
Head of oversight agency questions safety at WIPP
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — The recent truck fire and radiation release from the gover nment’s troubled nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico were “near misses” at a facility whose workers proved unprepared to respond to the emergencies, the head of an independent oversight agency said. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur also said the Feb. 5 underground truck fire at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was preventable, and that the initial response to a radiation release that contaminated 17 employees working above ground nine days
later was unsatisfactory. “As a result, the internal contamination level of workers, although minor, was nevertheless greater than necessary,” Winokur wrote Friday in response to a query from New Mexico Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich. “The local WIPP Emergency Operations Center was ineffective, and the DOE (Department of Energy) emergency center at headquarters in Washington, D.C., was never notified, as would have been appropriate.” Winokur’s letter was the second critical assessment of the plant’s operations, safety procedures and emergency response to the back-to-back incidents.
Mark Wilson Photo
The International Law Enforcement Academy is successful due not only to the world-class training the facility provides, but also due to the friendly residents of Roswell. Frank Taylor, site manager of ILEA-Roswell and former New Mexico State Police chief, said the interaction between Academy delegates and the smalltown America lifestyle of
Roswell makes a great and favorable impression on law enforcement officials around the world. “One of the reasons ILEA was placed here was to give our delegates a chance to experience the real small town America,” Taylor said. “If we were located in New York or Washington, I don’t think our delegates would get to experience what life is really like in the U.S.” The ILEA program has six sites around the world
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TODAY’S FORECAST
competency report, he thought Campbell should stand trial. Campbell has been charged with three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of bringing a firearm onto school property, said Chandler. The shooting at Berrendo Middle School took place in a gym where students had gathered to stay warm from the frigid weather outside before the start of class. Wounded were 12-yearold Nathaniel Tavarez and 13-year -old Kendal Sanders. Both children are recovering from their wounds. Campbell will be tried as a juvenile in connection with the shooting. He was not charged as an adult because of his age, in accordance with New Mexico law. No one under age 14 in the state can face adult sanctions, authorities said.
Board approves ‘Aiming for the Stars’ funding JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
Funding for the first “Aiming for the Stars,” planned for Oct. 17 in Roswell, was given an initial approval by the city’s Occupancy Tax Board Tuesday. The board will recommend to the city’s finance committee that the event should be allocated $2,465 in lodger’s tax funds. For mer Mayor Bill Brainard initiated the idea to hold the two-day event to honor the legacy of rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard and his years of research in Roswell. “All of these guys are space science intellectuals and well noted in their fields as authors and sci-
entists,” Brainard said. Other activities will include a portable planetarium, telescopes, a bicycle gyroscope, NASA exhibits, a 1/15th scale model of the space shuttle and a full-size shuttle astronaut spacesuit available for photo ops. The family-friendly event will be free for the public. Organizers have planned a $25,000 marketing budget that Brainard has singlehandedly fundraised. Brainard addressed the city’s Occupancy Tax Board for a small portion of funding, which was approved in lodger’s tax funds. The approval will be sent to the city’s finance committee today. If approved by the committee, the City Council is
Manager: ILEA brings the world to Roswell RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
A competency hearing for 12-year-old Mason Campbell, the boy accused of shooting two classmates at Berrendo Middle School, is scheduled for Friday afternoon in Roswell. The hearing, set for 1:30 p.m. Friday, will determine if Campbell is competent to stand trial. Police say Campbell, armed with a shotgun, opened fire in the middle school on Jan. 14, seriously wounding two students before a staff member persuaded him to put down the firearm. All parties have received a competency report on Campbell, and the judge will decide on Friday whether Campbell is competent. On Tuesday, Special Prosecutor Matt Chandler had no comment on whether, based on his review of the
McQuiddy
— four regional academies, at Budapest, Hungary; Bangkok, Thailand; Gaborone, Botswana; and San Salvador, El Salvador; a regional training center for Latin America at Lima, Peru; and the center for advanced training at Roswell. ILEA began classes in Roswell in the deBremond National Guard facility at the Roswell Industrial Air Center in September 2001, according to the website, nmt.edu.
The Roswell academy offers an advanced management course for midand upper -level lawenforcement personnel, focusing on the academic aspects of law enforcement rather than its practical aspects. “We don’t teach you how to shoot a gun, or how to drive a car,” Taylor said. “We teach advanced law enforcement principles to prosecutors, judges, and See ILEA, Page A3
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6 • FACUNDO “COONEY” CARRILLO • MARK VASQUEZ, SR. • HELEN VERA • IRIS FERN PARNELL • JIMMY LEE PATTERSON • TRACI D. BERLIN-WYNGAERT • CANDICE DAWN RIDLON
expected to consider it at its next meeting in April. Harrison Schmitt, an astronaut on the Apollo 17 mission, and one of the last two men to step foot on the moon, will make an appearance, Brainard said. Representatives from the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation, the National Air and Space Museum and Charles A. Lindbergh Museum will accept awards for their museums during the weekend. Other activities will include a lunch for local and state representatives with keynote speaker Dr. Lowell Catlett, futurist and dean of the School of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State Univer-
sity. The lunch will honor Gen. Josiah S. Bunting, president of the Guggenheim Foundation and past superintendent of Virginia Military Institute and author; and Dr. Michael Neufeld, curator of the Goddard Collection at the National Air and Space Museum and an authority on Wernher von Braun. On Oct. 17, speakers will address Goddard and his legacy. A “Space T rail Expo” Oct. 18 will feature New Mexico’s space-related assets, including museums, science centers, observatories and industry. “It’s a real opportunity See FUNDING, Page A3
Randal Seyler Photo
Frank Taylor, site manager for the International Law Enforcement Academy in Roswell, discusses the ILEA campuses around the world on Tuesday.
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....B6 FINANCIAL ..............B3
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8