Hearsay/In Memoriam

In Memoriam

www.sbnm.org

Julie Neerken passed away peacefully on Aug. 4 in Phoenix, Ariz., at age 71 after a five-year battle with cancer. She grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., and attended the University of Michigan for both her bachelor’s degree in English and her J.D. While at Michigan Law, she also met her husband, Jim Widland. Julie began her legal career in Illinois before striking out with her new husband to New Mexico, where the two of them practiced law for decades. Julie specialized in employee benefits law and enjoyed a distinguished career that included numerous accolades such as appearing in The Best Lawyers in America, achieving the the highest Martindale-Hubbell rating, being named to Southwest Super Lawyers, and being listed in Chambers-USA. She was a director with the Rodey Law Firm and retired in 2015. While she appreciated the intellectual challenge of her chosen area of the law, she really enjoyed the fact that she did legal work that helped people. Julie was socially conscious and made sure to extend her professional activities into the realm of public service including work on behalf of the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board and the Chaparral Council of the Girl Scouts. She helped create the New Mexico IOLTA program, which provides legal services to people in need. Julie and Jim raised two children in Albuquerque: Kate Gallego, mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., and Thomas Widland, head of Systematic Macro Research at Two Sigma, a financial sciences company based in New York City. Julie was a loving and beloved mother. She was a treasured friend as well, who made deep connections that lasted across decades thanks to her kindness and generosity. She was an avid reader who was often reading several books at once on a wide variety of topics. And she was an animal lover (any dog who joined Julie’s home won the canine lottery), and later in life she became an enthusiastic birder. She loved theater, music, and live concerts. Julie was preceded in death by her parents John and Nancy Neerken. She is survived by her husband of 42 years, Jim Widland, her children Kate Gallego and Tom Widland, her grandson Michael Gallego, her brother John Neerken, and her sister Katharine Maxey. (John) Ronald Boyd, local lawyer, died peacefully with family by his side at his home in Canada de Los Alamos outside of Santa Fe on May 30. Ronald was born in Cleburne, Texas, on June 29, 1945. Growing up in Central Texas, he honed his practical joke skills. Attending the University of Texas, Austin, he completed his undergraduate studies and law degree. While living in Austin, he heard about a beautiful, culturally-rich, bohemian, small town in New Mexico. With his law degree and little else he moved to Santa Fe. Always industrious and capable of making friends of strangers, Ronald convinced a local lawyer, Al Sanchez, to take him on as an apprentice. After earning his bar license, Ronald opened his own practice. He was known as a generous lawyer who would take the most hopeless of cases, often times working for barter or without charge. Both a friend to, and a thorn in the side of, opposing counsel, court clerks, and judges alike, Ronald loved being a lawyer, working up until days before his death. He met Marjorie, a native of Chicago, in Santa Fe, introduced by mutual friends. They purchased a small historic “shotgun” house along the railroad in Lamy, N.M., where they brought home their two babies. Losing the house to fire, Ronald and Marjorie began working towards their dream of building a solar-heated, environmentally low-impact home on land outside of Santa Fe, where Marjorie continues to live. Ronald loved being a father, making time to coach his kid’s sports teams, and keeping Lucienne and Ethan busy with silly adventures like chasing down florescent-colored golf balls he would hit into the arroyos and pinon trees around their home. Other than his family, practicing law, and golf, Ronald’s other deep commitment was to his faith and guru, Mata Amritanandamayi, “Amma”. Among fellow devotees and in the presence of Amma, Ronald found lifelong friends and peace from his recurring health struggles. He attended Satsang most Saturday evenings where he was able to express his love for music, first learning the finger cymbals, then drums, and finally guitar. On Sundays, he joined his friends from the Burrito Project at the Ashram to make lunches for Santa Fe’s unhoused people. Known as the “plant guy,” he shared his capable green-thumb by growing and then selling plants each year to raise money for the Amma Center of New Mexico. Ronald was preceded in death by his father, John Porter Boyd, his mother, Mary Kathryn Boyd Fountain, and his step-father, Lee Fountain. His is survived by his wife, Marjorie Sahlin Boyd, his children Lucienne Ohanian (Ara Ohanian) and Ethan Boyd, his brother, Gary Boyd (Mildred “Mickie” Boyd), and his grandchildren, Raffi and Sarkis.