Gene Clement

Charles Eugene Clement “Gene” was born in Raton, New Mexico to Charles E. Clement and Eugenia Twitty Clement on December 2, 1937. He had wonderful memories of growing up in a small town. After graduation from Raton High, he and his parents move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Gene worked a lot of jobs while earning a BA and a MA from the University of New Mexico. He also joined the New Mexico National Guard and spent Summers in some interesting places.

He began his teaching career as a biology teacher at Albuquerque High School and taught night school classes to adult learners.

Gene met and married his wife Frances “Sally” Young in 1963 after they met on a blind date arranged by friends. They enjoyed 61 years together and raised two children.

Changing careers after five years of teaching, he began working as a Sanitarian at the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department. Still thirsting for knowledge. Gene gained admission to the University of Minnesota and earned a Master’s of Public Health in 1970. After a brief stay in Los Angeles with the County Health Department (where we experienced our first earthquake) the little family returned to Albuquerque for good. Gene became the Assistant Director of the Mid Rio Grande Health Planning Council in 1973. He became director of the Bernalillo County Environmental Department for 20 years from which he retired.

Gene and Sally love to travel, and they did so throughout their marriage. They visited almost all the 50 states and enjoyed cruises and trips to Mexico and the Caribbean and visited Panama as well as England, France, Wales, Ireland, Switzerland, and Canada. Their new hobby of enjoying being grandparents began in 2006 with the birth of their first grandson.

Gene was a lifelong learner and teacher. He enjoyed meeting people and could carry on a conversation with anyone. His tales of the history of New Mexico were legendary! He loved visiting the Meadowlark senior center for a mean game of pool. He was fascinated with the history of his family and collected notebooks full of information on all the various relatives.

Gina survived by his wife Sally of Rio Rancho and his daughter Christina of Albuquerque, his son John and his former wife Stephanie of Las Vegas, Nevada along with his two wonderful and adored grandsons, Jack and Joe.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to New Beginning LLC at http://www.tnbabq.com/ or Watermelon Mountain Ranch.