One of my favorite stories from our family comes from something that Tony Gabaldon did when he was a state senator in Arizona. It happened in about 1985. I remember it distinctly because he did all of the background work to introduce the bill even though it was "tongue in cheek." Tony was married to my cousin, Margaret.
That was about the time that testing started to become a big thing in education. I was teaching then and I loved that he did this. Of course, testing didn't have the importance or the impact that it does today.
Tony was a state senator from Flagstaff for 20 years. This was before term limits. He was a great guy and had been a teacher and principal in Flagstaff for many years. He was an advocate of public education and was a very influential senator and was very well respected.
When the legislature was discussing standardized testing, he finally had enough and introduced a bill to put "IQ" scores of anyone running for the legislature on the ballot. It made national news.
I have told this story through the years. Yesterday, my cousin, Maggie, sent me this article. I hadn't seen an actual article on it before. It is from a newspaper in Maryland dated 1985.
Tony was one of a kind! We had so many great times during the years. I remember helping him cook for big crowds for different political fundraisers. We cooked at Carolyn Warner's house and at Eddie Basha's house. There were many different fundraisers through the years and I always enjoyed that part of the politics. I got to meet a lot of people.
Tony died in 1998. He was truly one of the good people in the world and such fun to be around. He always had a story to tell about something. NAU named a dorm after him because of all of the work he had done in the legislature for them.
I loved the times spent with Tony and Yaya and the other cousins. New Year's Eve has never been the same!
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