2017 Homecoming Honorees

ENMU Foundation Awards

Business of the Year: Big Valley Automotive, Inc.

ENMU Athletics corporate sponsor Big Valley Automotive, Inc. has generously supported the University and ENMU Athletics for the past decade. They are one of only two Anchor Board sponsors for Greyhound Club, donating thousands of dollars in monetary and trade gifts per year. In trade, the company loans multiple cars for ENMU coaches to use when recruiting and traveling to out-of-town games. As coowners of Big Valley — one of the 10 largest private employers in Roosevelt County — ENMU alumnus Randy Van Leuven (BBA 93) and Wade Rutter (attended) value the importance of keeping money local. In addition to their support of ENMU, Big Valley actively fundraises to help the local economy. In the last 18 months alone, they have raised $24,000 for local schools and Roosevelt County Crime Stoppers. This past August they brought the community together for their Drive4UrSchool event, where the company donated $20 per test drive toward Portales High School Athletics.

Philanthropist of the Year: Healy Foundation

A strong supporter of education and the arts, Healy Foundation – spearheaded by Ed and Trudy Healy of Taos, New Mexico – has contributed generously to ENMU’s KENW-TV since 2008. They are a main financial backer for the interview series “Report from Santa Fe,” and they also helped fund the KENW-produced documentary “Ol’ Max Evans – The First Thousand Years,” which premiered at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival in October. Because of their generosity, KENW was able to upgrade production equipment, utilize a more attractive set, and provide an enhanced learning experience for ENMU students who work in the studio to get valuable, hands-on training.

For the 25 years they have been established, the Healy Foundation mainly supports the state’s land and water issues. In addition to their donations to ENMU, the foundation (previously named the Martha Ann Healy Family Foundation) has funded programs to aid the farming industry at NMSU, to UNM for land and water issues, and to the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, a division of New Mexico Tech, for an aquifer mapping and monitoring project.

Volunteer of the Year: Billy K. Gaedke Jr.

For the past 17 years, Billy K. Gaedke, Jr. (MED 89, BS 88) has loyally agreed to review the hundreds of College of Education and Technology (CET) scholarship applications that come through the ENMU Foundation office – an important and tedious task. Even though he officially retired from ENMU in 2006 after working 16 years as an instructor of education foundations, he remains actively involved and does not take his position as the chair of the CET Scholarship Committee lightly. In recent years he expanded his role even further to also review the ENMU Foundation general scholarships.

Since joining ENMU’s faculty in 1990, Mr. Gaedke has mentored more than 900 prospective teachers and has served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and three terms on the Council of Professors Emeriti (COPE) Board of Directors. In 2002, ENMU honored him with the Chester Haughawaut Exemplary Human Relations Award, and in 2006 he was named Eastern’s Collegiate FFA Teacher of the Year. He received Distinguished Emeritus Faculty status in 2014. Mr. Gaedke may be most well-known, however, as the “voice” of the Clovis Wildcats, since he has been volunteering his time as the announcer at their games for the past 38 years.

Alumni Association Awards

Outstanding Alumni Award: Dr. Glenda Balas

Dr. Glenda Balas (MBA 89, BS 75) is a nationally recognized educator known for her outstanding scholarship in mass communication and her bold commitment to broadening educational opportunities for underrepresented communities. A Portales native, she has served as the dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of North Texas at Dallas since 2013, as well as their interim provost and senior vice president of Academic Affairs since 2016. From 2010-13, she chaired the Communications and Journalism Department at UNM, and from 2008-10 she chaired the Mass Communications Department at Sam Houston State University in Texas, was faculty at DePauw University in Indiana, and was a teaching assistant at the University of Iowa. Before her 25-year career in higher education, Dr. Balas had an already impressive media industry career, having worked at KENW-TV as the director of public information, director of programming, and director of development.

Outstanding Alumni Award: Hossein Zamanian

Hossein Zamanian (MBA 74) first traveled to Portales from his home in Iran to attend ENMU for the low-cost tuition and the excellent reputation of the College of Business. He worked hard, earning his degree in 18 months before going on to earn his doctorate in education from East Texas State (now known as Texas A&M-Commerce). Hossein taught for nine years at Southwest Christian College in Terrell, Texas before taking the CPA exam and beginning work as a junior accountant. Today, he has his own firm which has 10 accountants and more than 500 clients. In addition to his success as a CPA, in the 1980s Hossein designed, marketed and manufactured a booming jewelry line that sold to major department stores including Nordstrom. He also designed and patented two products. One invention is a kabob maker manufactured and sold in both Iran and in America at World Market stores nationwide. The other, a uniquely designed computer stand base with wheels, manufactured in Dallas, is sold online and via Fry’s Electronics. His most recent patent pending involves an innovative education software for bilingual reading and learning to read music, which is currently being rolled out at Montessori schools.

Honorary Lifetime Award: Dr. James Miller Sr. and Jr.

For 50 years, Dr. James Miller, Sr. was one of the foremost educational leaders in New Mexico public schools and community colleges. He taught and served as an administrator, superintendent or board consultant in nearly 40 of the state’s 89 districts. He moved to Los Alamos in 1954 and spent the remainder of his career and life advancing the cause of education, particularly for women and Hispanics. He founded Santa Fe Community College in 1983 and Rio Rancho Public Schools in 1994. He was instrumental in establishing the Mimbres Valley Learning Center at Western New Mexico University-Deming in 1996.

Dr. James Miller, Jr. served as a teacher in New Mexico and for the Department of Defense, as well as the superintendent in Farmington and Carrizozo. He was the founding director of ENMU’s Ruidoso Instruction Center, securing grants, donations and other financial support. He worked diligently to position the center for branch campus status (achieved in 2005). Since retiring, Dr. Miller, Jr. has remained active in Lincoln County and Mescalero, in economic development, with business energy efficiency programs, rural water systems and more. He was also instrumental in securing a Memorandum of Understanding between ENMU and the Mescalero Apache Tribe.