Roger Max Zimmerman was born at Rehoboth Mission east of Gallup, New Mexico. His early years were spent at Mariano Lake Trading Post. He has a Navajo name: Navajo Blue Eyes. He graduated from high school at New Mexico Military Institute and enrolled at the University of Colorado where he received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees. He taught Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado from 1959 to 1964 and at New Mexico State University from 1964 to 1979. He was then employed at Sandia National Laboratories where he worked on projects associated with the storage of nuclear waste, weapons components testing programs, and rocket systems target deployments. He retired in 2000 as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff and did part time consulting for another 11 years.
Upon retirement, he pursued his personal interests in exploring local history. He authored a book titled: Kitchen’s Opera House, Gallup, New Mexico with initial publication in 2002, and the second edition coming out in 2012. In 2011 he became active in the Albuquerque Historical Society and became president of the organization in 2013 and continued in that capacity until 2019. He is on the society speaker’s bureau and has offerings on: Son of an Indian Trader/ Growing up on the Navajo Reservation; Rerouting of Route 66 Through Tijeras Canyon; Albuquerque and the Yazoo; Theoretical Texas Boundary in New Mexico; Opera House in Gallup, NM Without Opera Being Sung; and Lighter Moments of Roger Max Zimmerman Memoirs. He is one of 11 trained guides who provide free downtown walking tours of Albuquerque, NM. In 2019, he authored a book through the History Press of Arcadia Publishing titled: A History Lover’s Guide to Albuquerque, and he has published his memoirs in 5 volumes of www.smashword.com e-books in 2021.
In regards to the Kitchen Opera House in Gallup, was this theatre business advantageous to any of the Navajo people or was it mostly supportive of the Anglo in the Gallup area? Did mining families ever grace the Opera House?