Gregory E. Montes – 50th Reunion Essay

Gregory E. Montes

P.O. Box 83784

San Diego, CA 92138

greg2_2008@yahoo.com

Education: Yale College, BA, cum laude (1969); Yale Architecture School, M. Arch. (1972)

Career: 1972-76, at two non-profit organizations in Mission District, San Francisco, CA, I prepared (with community input) comprehensive plan, including improvements I suggested, including new park built in densely populated Mission District. 1976 onward, I was Planner at San Bernardino, San Diego and Santa Cruz County Planning Departments in California.

Avocations: Hobby: Donation to public-access library special collections of rare/scarce books, zines, postcards, photos, etc. re urban history and travel. Interests: concerns re world overpopulation, environmental sustainability, and durable democracies.

College: Morse

Now retired in San Diego, I organize and continue sending items to some of the following collections I donated in 2009–17:

1) Gregory E. Montes Urban History and Travel Collection (input collection name at Cornell Library home page search bar to see web page about and cataloged books of the collection; about 1,000 books cataloged so far of about 1,300 books; and also zines, photos, thousands of postcards, prints and other items; I have donated to the collection in memory of my parents, Dr. Gustavo E. and Marcia S. Montes);

2) Gregory E. Montes Urban History and Travel Collection (input collection name at University of New Mexico (UNM) Libraries home page search bar for catalog entries of 76 books I donated in memory of my uncle, aunt and first cousin: Paul, Eva Montes and Francina Larrazolo (Paul was U.S. Attorney for New Mexico and member/President of UNM Board of Regents in 1951-55; and his father, Octaviano Larrazolo, New Mexico Governor and U.S. Senator in 1920’s, is so far the only U.S. Hispanic to have held both offices);

3) Dr. Gustavo E. and Marcia S. Montes Papers (google that for link to web page) at Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas (Austin) Library; with several hundred photos (mainly taken by my father at UT in 1936-46) and negatives and some articles, clippings and other materials, I donated in memory of my parents and grandparents, Elceario M. and Francisca Rey Montes and Aaron David and Leah Walk Schattenstein, mainly regarding:

a) my parents’ studies at UT Austin (my father was the first Hispanic to earn a Chemical Engineering Ph.D. in the UT system);

b) my father’s ancestry in Texas and New Mexico since the 18th century;

c) my father’s chemical engineering work in the US, Venezuela, Nigeria and Algeria in 1946–74 and at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, DC in 1974–84; and

d) my mother’s work as English and Drama teacher in 1965–80 and her 1975–77 presidency of the 1,700 member IDB Wive’s (now Spouse’s) Association; and

4) 374 rare/scarce books on urban history/travel I donated to Toronto Public Library (TPL), largest municipal library in Canada, of which 41 books were included in TPL collections and the remainder sold to raise funds for TPL programs. (Catalog entries for the 41 books are found by entering at TPL home page search bar, either my name or Augusta Irving’s. At each of 41 catalog entries, click on “Details” to see “Source/Donor” note that I donated the book in memory of Augusta Irving (1908–2000), a former Manhattan public school teacher who operated in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, circa 1955–85, a bilingual school I attended in 1960–62).

In 1966–77, at Yale and later, I researched/wrote a 400-page typescript history of Mexico City’s Alameda Area, focused on Alameda Park, founded in 1592 and oldest, public park in the Americas. In 1976–82 I researched/wrote and had published in Journal of San Diego History, three articles on history of San Diego’s Balboa Park in 1868–1911.