[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 26, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1200-E1201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IN MEMORY OF ROBERT M. McKINNEY: 1910-2001

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                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 26, 2001

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, I rise before the House of 
Representatives today to mark the passing of an important American, 
Robert Moody McKinney, editor and publisher of the Santa Fe New 
Mexican, the west's oldest newspaper.
  Over my years of serving the people of New Mexico, I came to know and 
respect Mr. McKinney. I saw embodied in him the principles of a 
dedicated public servant and many of the high standards that we expect 
from a newspaper editor and publisher. He was a man of great wit, 
humility, intelligence and integrity, and his many contributions to his 
country will never be forgotten.
  I join many in mourning the death of Robert M. McKinney and send my 
heartfelt condolences to his family. I am including for the Record a 
copy of his obituary, which details his extraordinary career.

             [From The Santa Fe New Mexican, June 25, 2001]

        Robert M. McKinney: 1910-2001, Paper's owner Dead at 90

       Robert Moody McKinney, editor and publisher of The Santa Fe 
     New Mexican, died of pneumonia Sunday night at New York 
     Hospital. He was 90. His daughter, Robin McKinney Martin of 
     Nambe, was with him. He was a diplomat, corporate director, 
     conservationist, veteran and poet.
       During a distinguished career, McKinney served as assistant 
     secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. ambassador 
     to the International Atomic Energy Agency at Vienna, Austria, 
     and as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland.
       McKinney purchased The Santa Fe New Mexican in 1949 and was 
     its editor and publisher for 52 years. Due to health problems 
     from the high altitude of Santa Fe, McKinney sold the company 
     to Gannett Co. in 1976, retaining the right to continue as 
     editor and publisher.
       After a protracted and celebrated court battle, which he 
     won, McKinney resumed management of the newspaper in 1987 and 
     repurchased the property in 1989.
       Through his friendship with U.S. Sen. Clinton P. Anderson, 
     McKinney was instrumental in securing the San Juan Chama 
     water-diversion project. He also persuaded St. John's College 
     of Annapolis, Md., to open its western campus in Santa Fe.
       As publisher, he supported John Crosby's efforts to launch 
     The Santa Fe Opera and staged conferences in the early 1960s 
     on the advantages of managed municipal growth in Santa Fe.
       Born in Shattuck, Okla., Aug. 28,1910, McKinney grew up in 
     Amarillo, Texas, and graduated from Amarillo High School in 
     1928. As a teen-ager, he was a cub reporter for the Amarillo 
     Globe News.
       He received a bachelor's degree, graduating Phi Beta Kappa 
     from the University of Oklahoma in 1932 with a major in 
     literature.
       Upon graduation, he worked in New York City as an 
     investment analyst at Standard Statistics, now Standard and 
     Poor's. He served as a partner in his cousin Robert Young's 
     investment firm from 1934 to 1950 and became financially 
     successful by investing in bankrupt railroad stock at the 
     depth of the Depression.
       During World War II, McKinney, was,.a lieutenant junior 
     grade in the U.S. Navy. He helped develop and manufacture the 
     Tiny Tim rocket and participated in D-Day to observe how the 
     devices pierced the armor of German tanks.
       In 1943, he married Louise Trigg, the daughter of a 
     ranching family from eastern New Mexico.
       His career in government included appointments by five 
     presidents.
       President Harry S. Truman appointed him assistant secretary 
     of the Department of Interior in 1951. President Dwight D. 
     Eisenhower named him U.S. ambassador to the International 
     Atomic Energy Commission. He was editor and principal author 
     of a multivolume work on the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
       President John F. Kennedy appointed him U.S. ambassador to 
     Switzerland in 1961.
       Under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, he 
     held appointments in the U.S. Treasury Department. He was 
     awarded the Treasury Department's Distinguished Service 
     Medal.
       Because of Santa Fe's proximity to the National Atomic 
     Weapons Laboratory at Los Alamos, McKinney became interested 
     in peaceful uses of atomic energy, became an authority in 
     that field and published several books on the subject.
       McKinney served on the board of directors of several major 
     corporations, including the Rock Island Railroad, 
     International Telephone & Telegraph, Trans World Airlines and 
     Martin Marietta.
       He was a classical scholar, having mastered Latin at 
     Amarillo High School and Greek at the University of Oklahoma. 
     He

[[Page E1201]]

     was a published poet; his book Hymn to Wreckage was rated by 
     The New York Times as one of the 10 best poetry books 
     published in 1947.
       McKinney's hobby was landscape architecture. Farms he owned 
     in Nambe and Middleburg, Va., were testament to his design 
     skill.
       McKinney was divorced from Louise Trigg in 1970 and later 
     married Marielle de Montmollin, who died in 1998.
       He is survived by his daughter, Robin Martin and her 
     husband, Meade Martin; grandchildren Laura and Elliott of 
     Nambe; stepson Laurent de Montmollin of Florida; and 
     stepdaughter Edmee Firth of New York and her children, Marie 
     Louise Slocum and Olivia Slocum, both of New York, and John 
     Slocum of Newport, R.I.
       Funeral services are pending.

       

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