Steve Reynolds

Steve Reynolds played end on the 1938 Lobo football team that participated in the school’s first postseason bowl game, the Sun Bowl in El Paso. But, it was his success off the field and subsequent achievements after leaving UNM that put him in the Hall of Honor. Reynolds was Student Body President and excelled academically, graduating with distinction in 1939 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Reynolds served as a Navy Lieutenant during World War II. In August of 1955, he began a 35-year tenure as the State Engineer of New Mexico. Reynolds became nationally prominent as an authority in water resources, serving on President Eisenhower’s Weather Modification Advisory Committee and as president of the Association of Western State Engineers and Western States Water Council.

Reynolds received numerous accolades from UNM, including the Zimmerman Award for Outstanding Achievement and an honorary Doctor of Law degree.

At Reynolds’ memorial service in June of 1990, New Mexico Gov. Garrey Carruthers proposed that a bust of Reynolds fill the last available space in the Rotunda of Congress in Washington, D.C., for his outstanding service to the state of New Mexico. Each state is allowed three distinguished honorees.