Mary Wells

Mary Elizabeth Wells of Las Cruces died Saturday morning April 21, 2012 at home as she wished. Mary was born on February 7, 1960 in Las Vegas, Nevada and moved to Las Cruces in 1997. She was a registered professional engineer in New Mexico and Nevada and received her B.S. degree from UNLV in geology and her M.S. degree in geotechnical engineering from the Mackey School of Mines in Reno. She worked as Principal Engineer for Terracon as was manager of their Las Cruces office at the time of her death. She is survived by her husband Edward Martinez, her mother Mary H. Wells, brothers Jared and Nicholas Wells (all in Portland) and brother Jonathon Wells of Las Vegas, NV. She was preceded in death by her father Herbert C. Wells and her brothers Paul and Marc, all of Las Vegas, NV. Mary was very active in numerous professional organizations and served in multiple officer roles in several including NM and National Society of Professional Engineers, Society of Mining Engineers and Sigma XI. She was a previous member of the Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors for New Mexico under appointment from the Governor's Office. More importantly and closer to her heart, she also was intimately involved with the scholarship program for the NM Engineering Society annually issuing many, many scholarships to college engineering students at our State universities. Mary was an elite level athlete and had completed more than 30 marathons and ultramarathons and six ironman triathlon events in the last 20 years including winning the female division of the local Bataan Death March on three separate occasions. She loved competing but more importantly loved the camaraderie of people that she met during these events that became lifelong friends. Her true passion was the outdoors and hiking and with her husband and numerous friends often completed mega-hikes throughout the Western U.S. Mary was a truly special individual who had the ability to sit down with a person for a little while and have that person walk away a lifelong friend. She was always supportive and encouraging and time and again the statement that people have made about Mary is that she made them feel better about themselves and believe in themselves. Her smile could truly brighten a room and has touched so many over the years throughout the world. Mary donated her body to the UNM Cancer Center and per her wishes no formal memorial will be held. In her honor a wake for her friends will be held later in June. Also in her honor, her husband and many friends will be working with the Bureau of Land Management and State Land Office to establish a "La Maria" recreational trail on the East Mesa of Las Cruces. A memorial engineering scholarship fund will also be established in her name. Accounts for each of these have been established at Citizens Bank of Las Cruces under the "La Maria Trail Fund" and the "Mary Wells Memorial Scholarship Fund". Any funds not used for the trail fund will be subsequently transferred to the memorial scholarship fund. Donations for each will be gladly accepted in her honor.