NM MILITARY MUSEUM & HURLEY FAMILY

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