Curtis J. Sollohub

Sollohub, Curtis J. Organizer succumbs to cancer By Martin Salazar Las Vegas Optic Thursday, December 26, 2013 at 6:19 pm (Updated December 27, 2:59 pm) Curtis John Sollohub, a retired New Mexico Highlands University professor who was instrumental in unionizing Highlands faculty and who in later years was battling the city over acequia rights, died Monday. He was 66. Sollohub died peacefully at home in his bed surrounded by those who loved him, his family said. He learned in May that he had Stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer. �We lost a heck of a good guy in the community,� said William Gonzales, who worked closely with Sollohub on acequia issues. Sollohub, who also wrote occasional columns for the Optic, died the day after marrying Martha McCabe in a Religious Society of Friends, or Quaker, ceremony at his Los Vigiles home. Sollohub and McCabe met in 2011 and had been together ever since. Sollohub was born in El Paso on June 1, 1947 but spent most of his youth in Fort Wayne, Ind. He and his former wife, Ishwari Immel, along with their daughter Tekla, moved to Las Vegas from the San Francisco Bay Area in 1987. Sollohub had worked in the computer industry in the Bay Area, and after moving to Las Vegas he joined the Highlands University faculty, teaching computer science. He rose through the ranks and became a tenured professor of computer science. He and Ishwari welcomed their second daughter, Sierra, during this period. According to his family, Sollohub cared about workplace fairness and due process, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Polish Americans who fought for collective bargaining rights. Sollohub served a stint as president of the highlands faculty union. �He was instrumental in starting the faculty union,� said Highlands sociology professor Tom Ward. Ward said he worked with Sollohub on union and faculty senate issues. He called Sollohub a �great colleague,� describing him as �very involved, articulate and soft-spoken, but direct.� Jean Hill, another longtime member of the Highlands faculty, said Sollohub �cared deeply about social justice issues� and was interested in the world around him. �He was involved in all aspects of Habitat for Humanity, from fundraising to pounding nails,� she said. Sollohub, an avid cyclist, hiker, skier and back-country camper, remained active in retirement. Besides volunteering his time to Habitat for Humanity, Sollohub was involved in Amnesty International, American Friends Service Committee, the Las Vegas Committee for Peace and Justice, Las Vegas Peace & Justice Center and Community Peace Radio. He also advocated for local hospital workers� rights to form a union, and he traveled to Palestine to teach computer skills to Palestinian women. �Curtis was involved in so many social justice activities, and that only increased after his retirement from NMHU,� said Pat Leahan, of the Las Vegas Peace and Justice Center. �His work speaks to his deep commitment to his community, both locally and globally. Gonzales agrees. �Curtis really had a very strong sense of community,� he said. �You could see that in the things he got involved in.� Sollohub had been scheduled to testify at last week�s court hearing over the dispute between the acequias and city over water rights. At the beginning of those proceedings, Daniel Sanchez, the attorney for the acequias, notified the special master that Sollohub had taken a turn for the worse and would not be in court. Gonzales said he and Sollohub have taken the lead in the negotiations with the city. �He was passionate about acequias,� Gonzales said. According to his family, Sollohub believed that small-scale agriculture is vital to communities. He served as chairman of the Acequia Madre de Los Vigiles until two months before his death. Before that he was vice president of the Rio de Gallinas Acequia Association. But Sollohub was also active on a global scale. When he died, he had been working on a book �based on conversations with men, women and children in the West Bank and Gaza about their daily lives under Israeli rule,� his family said. �He aimed to give voice to those he believed were rarely heard. Knowing the power of shared language, he regretted that his Arabic was not as strong as he wished, and until re-ordering his life tasks in May of this year he studied Turkish every day.� At age 18, Sollohub entered the minor seminary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Newburgh, NY. He was asked to leave five years later before completing his training for the priesthood, and, according to his family, would later say that it was because he was not reverent enough. He traveled for some time and then persuaded the Oblates to give him another chance. According to his family, he asked to be released from his preliminary vows just months before he was to have been ordained a priest because he was spiritually, doctrinally and socially distanced from official church tenets. He eventually found his spiritual home with the Religious Society of Friends. Among Sollohub�s survivors are his wife, Martha McCabe, his daughters, Tekla Currie, of Rock Spring, GA, and Sierra Josephine Sollohub of Las Vegas, and his former wife Ishwari Sollohub of Santa Fe. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, January 4, 2014 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the Traveler's Caf�, 1814 Plaza St. on the Plaza in Las Vegas, NM 87701 (505-426-8638). The SF New Mexican obit of Curtis is at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santafenewmexican/obituary.aspx?n=curtis-sollohub&pid=168848113 Daniels Family Funeral Services 2400 Southern Blvd Rio Rancho, NM 87124 505-891-9192