Empty Saddle: William H. "Billy" Mundy 1917-2009

William H. Mundy, Jr., 91, died peacefully at the Arbors of Del Rey, a Vista Living Community, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on April 6, 2009.

“Billy” Mundy was born in Dona Ana, NM on October 3, 1917 to William H. Mundy and Elizabeth Mundy. Bill attended New Mexico Military Institute in 1937-38 where he was an alternate on the polo team and New Mexico State University. In 1938 -1939 he guided tourists on mules in the Grand Canyon for the Fred Harvey Company. Bill also worked for the infamous Las Cruces Rancher, Emmitt Isaacks, where he met his future bride, Ethel Isaacks. Bill and Ethel were married in Hill, NM in 1941.

Bill and Ethel moved to Chama, New Mexico in 1949 to settle his dream. Bill and Ethel endured the violence shown against them in the early days of their ranch settlement and continued to persevere through six decades of Rio Arriba County unrest. Bill’s enemies were fierce and his friends the “best a man could have.” Bill was called “Mano de Águila” (Eagle Hand) a name bestowed to him when he lost his pinkie and part of the use of his hand in a hunting accident. Bill and Ethel survived a near-fatal car crash on our country’s Bi-Centennial in 1976. He was an active member of the Los Rancheros Vistadores- Bustardos Camp and rode with Ronald Reagan in 1989. The Mundy Ranch is also home to the “Mundy Buck” (pictured) the #1 World Record Mule Deer in the Burkett Scoring System and the widest Buck entered in Boone & Crocket.

Bill Mundy was a hard worker, a hard hitter, a horseman, a hunter, a mountain man, a fence and road builder, a rodeo clown, a rancher, a cowboy, a cowman, a tier of knots, a nail ‘straightener’ and baling wire fanatic, a rock-hound, a land baron, a poet and an artist, a nature conservationist, a comedian, an organizer, a collector of everything, a dad, grandpa and great-grandpa, an uncle, a father-in-law and a part time husband, a full time ladies man and most of all he had a great line of B.S. He never lacked for a first-rate story!

Bill is predeceased by his wife, Ethel and his sister, Florence (Betina). He is survived by his two sons, Emitt W. Mundy and James W. Mundy, grandsons, Print, Cache, Robert and Mark Mundy, and four great-grandchildren, Tyler, Annalee, Aria and Trew Mundy, and his nephew’s, Joe Morrow and William (Bill) Morrow.

A Memorial Party is planned for June 20, 2009 at the Mundy Ranch in Chama, New Mexico. Please contact Susan Jane Mundy (Bill@mundyranch.com) or call 575-756-2196 for more information.

The Family requests all donations be made to The Chama Valley Rotary Club on behalf of the Ethel I. Mundy Scholarship Fund. The Ethel I. Scholarship Fund provides financial assistance, motivation and internship opportunities for Escalante and Dulce High School Students pursuing post-secondary degrees. You may send donations in care of: Susan Jane Mundy, Mundy Ranch, Inc., PO Box 1087, Chama, NM 87520.