Northern New Mexico College to create new carpentry program with help of $153K donation
Sep. 21—Northern New Mexico College's efforts to revitalize its more than century-old El Rito campus took a step forward this week with the announcement of a donation to support a new carpentry program set to launch in 2025.
The $153,000 donation from Ralph "Butch" Clark III of Gunnison, Colo., will fund a faculty position for the initial two years of the developing carpentry program, which will be offered at both the El Rito and Española campuses, the college said.
The school's Technical Trades Program currently offers certificates and associate degrees in plumbing, pipefitting and electrical technology, with many trades classes held in El Rito.
Last year, the school announced it would use a $700,000 state grant to update the South Dorm on the historic El Rito campus, with a goal of providing housing and food service for students. Construction on the project is underway, spokesperson Arin McKenna wrote in an email.
The recent funding from Clark brings his total donations to Northern to $308,000.
He previously contributed to the school for the refurbishing of a facility that will soon be renamed the Ralph E. Clark, III Technical Trades Center for Excellence, according to the college's news release.
His donations also have funded the purchase of a specialized trades van, which serves six high schools in the region. The van — a teacher's personal vehicle before Clark's donation — provides high school students with access to up to three years of dual-credit trade programs.
The dual-credit program has been wildly successful, said Joe Padilla, director and department chair of technical trades at Northern — with a lot of union programs offering direct entry for students straight out of high school.
"We have 30 tradespeople retiring here — we have about seven to eight replacing them. So, our plan is to get trades back into the minds of the youth," Padilla said.
He credited the college's trades program for landing former students in roles with companies like Intel and at the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories.
Clark's adviser, Luke Danielson, said the philanthropist realized the need for improved trades education when trying to find an electrician to do work at his ranch in Gunnison; he found all the local tradespeople were booked.
He had invested in education before, partnering with Gunnison's Western Colorado University to create the Coldharbour Institute, which teaches regenerative agriculture practices. But when he looked to invest in the trades, he found no programs in his area equivalent to the one at Northern New Mexico College.
Clark was initially introduced to the school when it reinstated its Technical Trades Program in 2019. He visited the college and became set on investing in the program and creating a partnership between Western Colorado University and Northern, Danielson said.
There were a few things that attracted Clark to the small New Mexico college's work: funding from local government, agreements with unions and, most of all, its holistic approach to community-building.
Clark's family had always been philanthropic — at one time donating $5 million to Western Colorado University — but Danielson credited Clark's time as an Air Force officer during the Vietnam War for igniting his passion for helping others.
"His duties included notification of next of kin and arranging funerals," Danielson said. "He notified a lot of the families and arranged a lot of funerals. It was part of what really got him motivated about trying to be good to the world around him."
Western Colorado University and Northern New Mexico College will jointly a five-day "construction boot camp" in Gunnison in spring 2025 for students at both schools to contribute to Habitat for Humanity housing. Clark will help fund the initiative.
"Every community would like to have a Butch," Danielson said.
