11/08/2024
Yesterday, the Village of Capitan and I lost a dear friend. Pat Huey passed away suddenly at his home. He was a huge Trump fan and supporter. I am so very thankful that he knew Trump won the election before he passed. Seeing Pat at the post office often was something I enjoyed very much. We bantered, joked and teased one another about many things and always parted with a laugh. About the election I would say to him Pat, I am scared to death. He would say, oh no, Trump is going to win by a landslide. And so it went back and forth. It was always great fun to see him around town. Pat was a highly successful businessman for decades in Capitan with his concrete business. When my Dad was ready to build a barn to run his thoroughbred race horse business out of, he went to Pat for ideas and suggestions. Dad told Pat that he wanted stalls a horse could not kick or eat through. So Pat laid plastic on the ground, welded angle iron together to make the perimeter of the walls and poured concrete in the angle iron frames. The frames had metal plates welded on the angle iron. The footings in had metal plates that corresponded with the ones on the frame, and so the walls were welded to the footing. No horse has ever kicked or eaten through those stall walls. When Pat worked on a project you can bet the finished product was done right and was there to stay.
As a young man, Pat was big and powerful and as he aged his steps became shorter and slower but the spirt and fire Pat carried in his heart never waned. If one looked at his eyes closely when talking to him, the fire and spirt could still be seen.
I shall miss Pat very much.