This photo below of the Santa Fe Plaza reminds me of when I was 17 in 1965 in the late fall when the first snow storm came down. I had just moved to Santa Fe and was attending the "I AM" school as a boarding room student from the Los Angeles Area from Glendale where I had attended Glendale High School and Woodrow Wilson Junior High School and Horace Mann Grade school since I was 8 years old in 3rd Grade. So, living in the snow was a completely new experience for me.
My Buddy, Victor Davis, a fellow Senior who asked me to come to the "I AM" School that year told me that I should go to the park in Town and watch people in the first snows hit the boulder at the end of the park. So, I did as he said and watched about 1 car out of 10 slide down the hill because they forgot snow was slippery from the last year and crash into the boulder at one end of the park. For a 17 year old this was great fun then. I wouldn't enjoy it now simply because I would feel now that these people's insurance rates were going to go up on their cars and it was going to ruin some of their cars beyond fixing. But, for a 17 year old this isn't the way I thought then. Then is was the ultimate entertainment for a 17 year old far from home in a boarding Church School in his last year of high School. By the way Snow was pretty amazing to live in that winter and I hadn't seen temperatures that average 16 at night and temperatures down to zero before either. So, this was very interesting for an LA Surfer dude back then. My only regret was that I was not allowed to bring my car a 1956 Ford Station wagon to the "I AM" School. Kids whose parents lived there could have cars but not boarding school students like myself. This was in 1965 and I graduated in may of 1966 or almost 60 years ago by 2026.
This winter photo of the Santa Fe Plaza in the mid 1940s is by my dear friend Robert H. Martin. I was fortunate to have been his friend in the early aughts. Back in 2006 I published the biography of Concha Ortiz y Pino, who happened to be related to Bob by marriage. Concha’s sister, Mela, married Bob during his time as the official photographer of the Manhattan Project during World War II.
Documenting History
When WWII began Robert H. Martin joined the army and became the photographer for the Zenith Radio Corporation, one of the major defense contractors for the government. In 1946 the Los Alamos National Laboratory hired him as the official photographer of this nation’s top-secret nuclear projects. The Chicago native married Manuelita Ortiz y Pino, a member of one of New Mexico’s most prominent Hispanic families. In addition to his work at the Lab, he spent decades documenting Santa Fe culture and history.
Radiation-Exposed Cancer Survivor
Robert H. Martin retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1970s when he came down with cancer. Years of radiation exposure had taken its toll on the Martin. He is believed to be one of the longest survivors of radiation-exposed cancer in New Mexico. He died in Santa Fe in 2004 at the age of 83. Martin took this self-portrait shortly before his death.
- Categories: Santa Fe History
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