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Inscribed on the UNM Alumni Memorial Chapel’s south wall are the names of the 227 UNM alumni killed in combat since World War I.
The Alumni Association will celebrate UNM Alumni Chapel’s 50th anniversary this weekend.
The celebration will include a memorial for Air Force Major Raymond Estelle, the latest name added to chapel’s wall. A mass vow renewal will be held Sunday at 1 p.m. for alumni who were married in the chapel.
UNM alumna Gretchen Kuhn said she and her husband Ray were married in the chapel. She said they will celebrate their 31st anniversary this weekend as the chapel celebrates its 50th.
Kuhn said she and her husband met at a uranium mine they worked at together and married in 1981. She said renting the chapel cost about $25 and she spent about $700 on the entire wedding.
“I had to move in a month because of my new job and so it was a really big hurry,” she said. “We had a month to get married and we just booked the Alumni Chapel and it worked out really well.”
Kuhn, who now lives in Springfield, Mo, said she and her husband were intrigued by both the architecture and tucked-away location of the chapel.
“Because it’s not right on a street it made it especially really intimate in a way,” she said. “So it was really a very memorable experience.”
Michelle McRuiz, managing editor of Mirage, a publication by the Alumni Association, said the chapel was built in 1962 after about 20 years of fundraising by students, faculty and alumni.
“It was really great because the student governments helped … to raise money,” she said. “At one football game they passed around a basket for the chapel, donations ranged from $5 all the way up to a few thousand.”
John Gaw Meem designed the original floor plan of the chapel. He said the chapel follows Pueblo Revival Style, similar to other infrastructure on campus.
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Abraham said the Alumni Association hopes the chapel and the area surrounding can be a space where students a faculty can come to relax on an otherwise busy campus.
“In the middle of the campus there’s a place there for reflection and contemplation and for the thought that there is something more than just everyday life, and so I think that the chapel is sort of a symbol.”
Abraham said the Alumni Association can’t afford to pay for necessary repairs to the building, and that UNM doesn’t help the Alumni Association in this regard.
“The reality is that when you have an old building like that, terrible things go wrong and there isn’t money to fix it,” she said. “All of a sudden they become big (problems) and the building gets in disrepair.”
McRuiz said the building needs are re-stuccoing and repainting, and that the wood beams need to be restored in the ceiling and walls.
UNM Alumni Chapel 50th anniversary
Saturday
7 p.m.
War memorial and flag Ceremony
Sunday
1 p.m.
Rededication, music, mass vow renewal and reception in Hodgin Hall
