Juan Amadeo Aragon

Juan Amadeo Aragon, 87, died peacefully in his bedroom at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on September 9, 2026, holding his favorite green rosary.

Juan’s life began with a story as remarkable as the life that followed. He was born on December 3, 1938, in Watrous, New Mexico, to Amadeo and Dionicia Maes Aragon. At birth, the midwife attending him believed that he had been stillborn and placed him on the kitchen table while continuing to care for his mother. A woman from the community entered the home, noticed the baby struggling to breathe, and alerted the doctor. Juan was picked up, began to cry, and lived.

From his first moments, Juan was a survivor.

He spent much of his childhood with his maternal grandparents, Pedro and Luz Maes, on their farm near Mora. There, he learned the values that would define him throughout his life: hard work, responsibility, faith, resourcefulness, generosity, and devotion to family. His childhood unfolded against the backdrop of World War II while his parents worked in the shipbuilding industry in Long Beach, California. On the farm, Juan cared for animals, gathered eggs, brought in firewood, irrigated the garden, repaired fences, helped with haying, and learned how much could be accomplished through perseverance and steady effort.

Juan entered school speaking primarily Spanish. When a second-grade teacher attempted to rename him Johnny, he stood his ground and declared, “My name is Juan.” She never called him Johnny again.

That moment captured something essential about him. Juan knew who he was. He carried pride in his name, his heritage, his family, and the northern New Mexico communities that formed him.

After graduating from Mora High School in 1956, Juan planned to work on a farm in Colorado. His father had other ideas. Knowing firsthand the hardship of farm labor, Amadeo told his son that he was going to college. Juan enrolled at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He later wrote honestly that he arrived academically unprepared, struggled during his first year, and had to learn how to study, read for meaning, and express himself in writing.

He persisted.

A young man who had once been afraid of mathematics discovered that he had an exceptional mind for it. Juan earned a bachelor’s degree in business education, with minors in mathematics and biology. He later completed advanced mathematics institutes at the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, and Southeastern State College in Durant, Oklahoma, where he earned a master’s degree in mathematics with a minor in school administration.

In 1961, Juan began teaching mathematics at Taos High School. He spent twelve years in the classroom, including four years as chair of the Mathematics Department. He then became Director of Special Services and later served for twelve years as business manager for the Taos Municipal Schools. His responsibilities ranged from budgets and contracts to transportation, food services, school construction, and the maintenance of district facilities. He became known for his intelligence, exacting professionalism, personal integrity, and refusal to bend rules for personal or political advantage.

Juan also served on the Board of Regents of New Mexico Highlands University from February 19, 1979, to January 1, 1984, during the presidency of John Aragon. His service reflected his enduring commitment to education and to the university that had helped shape his own life.

In 1985, Juan became superintendent of the Questa Independent School District. Over the next five years, he helped transform the district. Under his leadership, Questa passed a $4 million bond issue and a two-mill levy, secured additional state and grant funding, constructed a new high school campus and its beloved Mini Pit gymnasium, renovated school facilities, opened a school in Red River, expanded bilingual education, established a soccer program, brought special education into full state compliance, and attained North Central accreditation for grades one through twelve.

Juan returned to Taos in 1990 as superintendent of the Taos Municipal Schools. During his five-year tenure, the district passed another $4 million bond issue and built Los Arroyos Elementary School. The district also developed television production, media-literacy, culinary-arts, mariachi, and chess programs and completed a comprehensive ten-year educational plan created through collaboration with educators, families, community members, clergy, business leaders, and state legislators.

Juan retired from New Mexico public education in 1995 after thirty-four years of service—but retirement did not hold him for long.

In 1998, he accepted the position of superintendent of Cibecue Community School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. There, Juan led the construction and completion of a new high school, including a gymnasium funded in part through a grant he wrote. He expanded student opportunities to include athletics, student government, homecoming, rodeo, Indian Club, National Honor Society, yearbook, and a junior-senior prom. He believed the students of Cibecue deserved the same rich educational experiences available to students anywhere else, and he worked to make those opportunities real.

Juan served as superintendent at Cibecue for nineteen years, retiring in 2017 following a heart attack he survived only months earlier. During his years in Arizona, he also taught mathematics for Northland Pioneer College, where he was listed as an associate professor. He said that he continued teaching because he wanted to keep his mind active—and because he loved to teach.

His professional accomplishments were substantial, but Juan’s life was never defined by titles alone. He was a builder in the deepest sense of the word. He built schools, programs, opportunities, homes, financial stability, and pathways for young people. He was a teacher who understood what education could make possible because education had transformed his own life.

The greatest partnership of Juan’s life began with a missed picnic.

Juan had known Mary Frances Martinez while they were growing up in Mora, but their courtship began when they were both teaching in Taos. On Labor Day weekend in 1963, they set out to attend a family picnic at Tres Ritos. Unable to find the gathering, they continued to Hopewell Lake, where they walked among the aspens and Juan carved their initials into a tree. They attended Mass together the following morning and, from that day forward, saw one another every day.

Juan married Mary Frances on June 13, 1964, at St. Gertrude Church in Mora. He later described it as “the wedding of the century.” For the next sixty years, four months, and four days, they built a life centered on family, education, work, faith, travel, laughter, and service.

Juan called Mary Frances “the most beautiful girl in Mora County.” She was his partner in every undertaking, his source of strength during difficult times, and, in his own words, “a jewel.” Together they raised three children: Luz, Juan, and Joseph. They also opened their home to foster children and welcomed a foreign-exchange student from Brazil, extending the boundaries of their family whenever a child needed a place to belong.

Juan and Mary Frances approached parenting as a commitment of unconditional Love. They encouraged their children’s interests, supported their education, attended their performances and athletic events, applauded their victories, and held them through their disappointments. Juan took particular pride in the adults his children became and in the lives they built.

Juan loved fishing, hunting, skiing, hiking, playing cards, shooting pool, traveling, fine dining, movies, sports, and gatherings with family and friends. He delighted in telling a good story and possessed a dry, observant sense of humor. He could describe the construction of a multimillion-dollar school and, with equal care, recall a broken car horn that worked only when a loose wire touched the steering column. His stories preserved not only the important events of his life but also the meals, mishaps, characters, landscapes, and laughter that made those events human.

Faith remained a steady presence throughout Juan’s life. He was raised in the Catholic tradition by his grandmother Luz, who taught him his prayers in Spanish and brought him to Mass at St. Gertrude Church. In Albuquerque, he attended St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church. His favorite green rosary was in his hand when he died.

Juan endured profound losses near the end of his life. Mary Frances died on October 17, 2024, after more than sixty years of marriage. Five months later, their son Juan died following a severe stroke. Juan also mourned the death of his son-in-law, Mark Winter. These losses wounded him deeply, yet he continued reaching toward his family, his friends, his faith, and the life still before him.

He remained grateful.

Near the conclusion of the autobiography he wrote for his descendants, Juan reflected on the full span of his life. Despite hardship, illness, and loss, he wrote, “I have been a lucky man.” He considered himself fortunate because he had married the most beautiful girl in Mora County, raised three extraordinary children, welcomed seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, and lived to know members of seven generations of his family.

Juan was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Mary Frances Martinez Aragon; his son, Juan Aragon; his son-in-law, Mark Winter; his parents, Amadeo and Dionicia Aragon; his sister, Angela “Ginger” Aragon Derrick; his brother-in-law, Chuck Derrick; and his niece, Denise Creamer.

He is survived by his daughter, Luz Aragon; his son, Joseph Aragon, and Joseph’s wife, Rebecca; and his daughter-in-law, Dana Aragon. He also leaves seven beloved grandchildren: Justin Aragon, Lucia Fang and her husband, Ed Fang, Jordan Aragon, Amadeo Aragon, Joseph Aragon Jr., Jacob Aragon, and Joshua Aragon; and four treasured great-grandchildren: Jayden Reel Aragon, Kennedy Moffat, James Fang, and Oliver Fang. He is also survived by his nephew, Richard Derrick.

Juan remained deeply connected to the Martinez family into which he married. He leaves a cherished extended family that includes Lisa and Joey Martinez, children of the late Joe Martinez; John and Andrea Martinez and their children, JD Martinez, Amelia Martinez, and Nina Martinez; Cecille Martinez Weschler and her husband Jim and their children Christina Velasquez, husband Toby, and Nasha Torrez, husband Raul; Robert and Betsy Martinez and their children, Ana Martinez, husband Christian Anstett and Danny Martinez; and the spouses, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, colleagues, former students, and friends whose lives became woven into his own.

Juan wrote his autobiography because he wanted his experiences to remain “a historical as well as ancestral memory” for the family members who followed him. He succeeded. His history is preserved not only in the words he left behind, but in the schools he strengthened, the opportunities he created, the communities he served, the family he loved, and the generations who will continue carrying his name and values into the future.

His life began with the words of a woman who noticed that the baby on the kitchen table was still breathing.

It ended peacefully, in his own home, with his rosary in his hand.

Between those two moments, Juan Amadeo Aragon built a remarkable life.

A rosary will be held on October 22, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Gertrude Church in Mora, New Mexico. The funeral Mass will be held at the same location on October 23, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Juan will be laid to rest beside Mary Frances in the Martinez family cemetery in Las Aguitas, New Mexico.

Juan will be deeply missed.

Arrangements are entrusted to and under the care of Rogers Mortuary 600 Reynolds Ave Las Vegas, NM 87701 505-425-3511 or 1-800-479-3511.

Please visit our online website www.rogersmortuarynm.com to sign the online register book.