Manuel Lujan Jr. is proud to be a 1946 graduate of St. Michael's High School. "There were 14 of us in that graduating class and every year since then, we've held a class reunion. Up until last year when three of our class members passed away, we all made it a point to come back to New Mexico for the reunion," he says.

Lujan's dedication to his alma mater has strengthened his love of Santa Fe despite the fact that he has not lived here for 60 years. He moved to Albuquerque in the 1960s to help run the Manuel Lujan Insurance Agency, which his father started in 1928. He left the business in the capable hands of his younger brother Edward when he embarked on a political career that kept him in Washington, D.C., for 24 years.

He served as the Republican Congressman for Northern New Mexico from 1968 to 1988. He was appointed the secretary of the interior in 1989 by President George H. Bush. "I was the second Hispanic member of President Bush's administration," he says.

Lujan's looks back on his life in Washington favorably. As he says, "Back then, the Republicans and Democrats all got along, and we patronized each other's watering holes. Today things are so different — it's no longer a friendly place. Now if I was offered a political position, I wouldn't accept it."

When Lujan returned to Albuquerque, he was out of politics and the insurance business; he has devoted his time to his family. He has been married to Jean Couchman for 61 years. The couple have four children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Recently, he and his wife legally adopted their 7-year-old great-grandson, Noah. "It's so funny, we wanted to attend a concert a while back and at our age we were scrambling to find a baby-sitter," he says.

Lujan continues to have fond memories of his early days in Santa Fe. In addition to graduating from St. Michael's High School, he was a member of the first graduating class in 1950 from St. Michael's College, now known as the College of Santa Fe. He remembers many of his first clients when he worked for his father's insurance agency.

"I sold insurance to the artists Georgia O'Keeffe, Will Shuster and Pansy Stockton," he says.

Not only did Lujan's father pave the way for the family's insurance business, he was the impetus for his firstborn son's political aspirations. "My father was the mayor of Santa Fe in the 1940s and he ran for governor in 1948. Republicans didn't have a chance of winning in those days, since Northern New Mexico had such a Democratic stronghold. The way I see it, people like my father, Phillip Hubble, Floyd Lee and Albert Mitchell ran for different political office knowing that they wouldn't win as a way of keeping the Republican Party alive. It was as if those guys were putting money in bank, and I came along cashed the check. I was the first Republican in New Mexico elected to Congress since the Great Depression," he says.

Manuel Lujan Sr. never did realize his political aspirations, but the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue building on St. Francis Drive bears his name in recognition of his contributions to the community.

As 81-year-old Manuel Lujan Jr. reflects on his life, he and his wife have been confronted with a dilemma. As he explains, "We've been talking about where we should be buried when the time comes, since all of our family lives in Albuquerque. But the family plot is at Rosario Cemetery and Santa Fe has always been home."

Ana Pacheco's weekly tribute to our community elders appears every Sunday she can be reached at 505-474-2800.