Walter Hernandez

A native Puerto Rican, Walter Hernandez moved to Albuquerque with his family in 1915. The “Hernandez Trio,” as Walter and his brothers came to be known, enrolled at Albuquerque High School and promptly excelled in athletics and academics.

Playing football at UNM in the early 1920s, Hernandez ran through the opposition with the thundering power of a “raging bull,” another of his nicknames. In 1924 and ’25, Walter and his brother, Louis, were named to the All-Far Southwestern football team. Walter Hernandez graduate from UNM in 1925 with a degree in geology.

Hernandez and his family moved to Cuba, N.M., and started a family-owned lumber, livestock, logging and trucking business, which remained in operation for the remainder of the 20th century.

At the age of 40, Hernandez became a commissioned officer at Fort Hood, Texas. He served in combat behind enemy lines in Belgium, France and Germany, and was the recipient of a Presidential Unit Citation for gallantry in action at the Battle of the Bulge. During three decades of military service, Hernandez rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Army.

Walter Rafael Hernandez died Jan. 21, 1991, at the age of 88.