Enrique Lucero

Enrique Simon Miranda Lucero, age 100, passed away peacefully at his home near Radium Springs, NM on January 23, 2025. He is preceded in death by his wife of 73 years, Enedina Franco Lucero, and his parents, Simon Luis Lucero and Adelina Miranda Lucero.

He received his education at Hill Public School and Las Cruces Union High School, class of 1942. At age 17, he joined the U.S. Navy as he had always planned. During WWII he served in the Pacific Theater as a Hospital Corpsman aboard amphibious ships and with the Marines. He felt fortunate to be stationed in a number of places which afforded him the opportunity to extend his travels with his family; places such as Guam, Barcelona, Spain and Naples, Italy. The highlight of his 20-year naval career was participating in the 1956-57 Operation Deepfreeze II mission to Eastern Antarctica, a location where no man had been before, to establish a scientific station. He retired in 1962 as a Senior Chief. He returned to the family farm where he grew up near Radium Springs, NM.

Utilizing his Navy skills, he began working as a Laboratory Technician at Memorial Medical Hospital and Alameda Medical Laboratory in Las Cruces. In 1968, he began a 17-year career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons as a Medical Technician Assistant at the Federal Corrections Institution in La Tuna, TX. In 1976, while working at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Pace University. He served in nine federal institutions. Enrique has the distinction of inclusion in the Bureau of Prisons’ “Hall of Fame” for having been the first Hispanic warden. Under Warden Lucero’s leadership, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego, California was the first high-rise institution in the system to receive accreditation. He retired in 1984 and, once again, headed back to the family farm.

Enrique and Enedina became farmers on the northern part of his dad’s 1922 Homestead near Radium Springs. They took pride that the pecan orchards they started will continue the three-generation legacy by his son Dennis of Pecans de Lucero.

Enrique and Enedina were active members of the Radium Springs community. Enrique was instrumental in forming the Radium Springs Volunteer Fire Department and served as its first Fire Chief. They actively pursued State approval and funding for the Radium Springs Community Center. They also advocated for the provision of community water.

Enrique now embarks on his next tour of duty, headquarters Heaven, to be with his wife and parents. He is survived by his 101-year-old sister, Stella Mitchell, of British Columbia, Canada and his five children, Dolores (Raymond), Dennis (Elaine), Daniel, Minerva and Leo (Debra), twelve grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren. He treasured the time he spent with his Lucero, Miranda, Baca and Franco families.

Enrique’s 100th year was well-spent and well-deserved in the home that he loved; actively reading, writing, listening to his beloved music, cataloging home videos for future generations, and entertaining his family with his life stories. He often said, “I feel blessed that I have lived a long, exciting life”. Every day he said, “I couldn’t be better”. His daily response to life was, “Che la vita!”

Celebration of Life will be at the Getz Funeral Home at 9:00 a.m. on February 22, 2025. Interment will follow at the Masonic Cemetery with Military Honors. This final resting place for Enrique and Enedina is across the street from the former Miranda home where Enrique was born.