Theodore Jones, '75 BA, dwells on the good. The first African-American firefighter in the Albuquerque Fire Department, Theodore ranks that distinction and his family of upstanding Albuquerqueans as his proudest accomplishments.

Theodore doesn’t dwell upon his challenges. An accident in 1968 injured his eyes and would result in complete blindness a decade later, but Theodore focuses upon the unexpected good that followed.

While the accident and eye injury put an end to his firefighting career, it put a start to his academic career. Theodore enrolled at UNM in 1969, and graduated on the dean’s list in 1975, with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

After graduation, Theodore and his family moved to Houston, where he worked first as a program analyst with NASA, and then a benefits counselor with the Veterans Administration. As a housing counselor with the City of Houston, Theodore began having sight challenges, which worsened to the point of blindness while he worked at the Social Security Administration.

At first, Theodore says, he was resentful about his blindness. “But I’ve gotten over that,” he says. “It’s not an overnight thing. You have to get your mind together. If you don’t, you’ll always be down in the dumps.”

“Adjusting from sight to sightlessness was my biggest challenge,” Theodore says. He’s grateful for the help he received from the VA’s Blind Rehabilitation Center. “They teach you how to function in the world of sight,” Theodore says, “grooming, cooking, cleaning, Braille, mobility, communication and computer skills.”

With characteristic optimism, Theodore, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, enrolled in the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. “Now that was a challenge!” he says.

In fact, law school without sight was more of a challenge than Theodore cared to continue, so he began a series of home-based businesses. Now he works from home as an investment agent/broker for Primerica Financial Services. Theodore still lives in Houston, with his wife, Catherine.

Theodore recalls a course at UNM, “Institutional Racism,” that he took at UNM. He says he found it enlightening. “Many people don’t set out to be prejudiced; rather, it is insidious and becomes all they know,” he says.

You don’t have to see prejudice to know it, Theodore says. “You’d be surprised what you hear.”

On the other hand, says Theodore, “I’m glad I’m not able to determine a person’s race initially. That way I don’t prejudge people. Everybody’s a person, because all I see is darkness. It is my hope for others that someday race relations among all will be seen from my viewpoint: everybody is just everybody.”

Another reward from dwelling on the good.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think all the stuff I was doing was leading up to this,” says New Mexico State Representative Jane Powdrell-Culbert, ’76 BAR.

Reviewing the potpourri of her life experiences could easily leave others to the same conclusion.

Yet, somehow, running hurdles in the US national competition, training to be a United Airlines flight attendant, working on community relations with the Albuquerque Police Department, and introducing the NRA mascot Eddie Eagle to children across the country have combined in perfect synergy for Jane’s career in the Roundhouse.

“I don’t think things happen by accident,” says Jane. “Somewhere along the way, I picked up the fact that God has a plan for you.”

If that is indeed a fact, then the plan for Jane began with her being born to hard-working, community-minded, egalitarian parents, Jewell “Sug” and Mable Powdrell. The couple moved from Texas to Albuquerque’s South Broadway neighborhood during the Depression. Sug did hard construction work and Mable worked as a maid. They managed to feed, clothe, and house Jane and her four brothers during the 50s and 60s in such a way that the kids never felt deprived of what was important—parental love and guidance.

It helped, says Jane, that the African-American community—and South Broadway’s multicultural neighborhood—had already espoused Hillary Clinton’s tenet that “it takes a village to raise a child.”

Involved in church, school, and neighborhood activities, Sug and Mable set an example of community involvement that Jane and other Powdrells would follow.

At Albuquerque High School, Jane set her sights upon running track in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. She made it to the nationals, competing with two- and three-time Olympians. Although she placed sixth out of nine runners, she ran her fastest time ever, a personal best that further set her course for success.

Returning to New Mexico—and an unsuccessful semester at Highlands University—Jane chose a new goal: to see the world as a flight attendant. United Airlines had just begun accepting minority flight attendants, and Jane was among the first African Americans to participate. She headed for training in Illinois, which included her first time ever on a plane and, frighteningly, a close-up look at the Chicago race riots. “It scared me,” she says. “I didn’t understand it. Growing up in South Broadway, race hadn’t been an issue. Running track, it hadn’t been an issue.”

The tensions were too great, and Jane, as she says, “washed out.”

Back home, Jane enrolled in UNM, while working under the tutelage of Kiki Saavedra in a City Parks & Recreation program. (Saavedra went on to a long career as state representative.) After graduating, Jane went to work for Competitive Edge, Galles Motors’ ad agency. In 1980, she began working with the Albuquerque Police Department, creating, among other things, a program for children’s safety. In the program, she included Ed Black’s (Chevrolet) bird mascot, Smiley, and the National Crime Prevention Council’s dog, McGruff—which would secure another job years later.

While at APD, Jane recalls, she was complaining to then Chief Hansen about a law. He told her she needed to go to the legislature. “I became a constant [there],” she says, “but still didn’t have the desire to be a legislator. I just thought it was cool to be there.”

Married to US Air Force Colonel Clarence Powdrell in 1988, Jane and her new husband moved to Washington, DC. She responded to a Washington Post ad placed by the National Rifle Association, searching for someone to direct its Eddie Eagle program about children and gun safety. Subsequently, Jane would travel “to every nook and cranny around this country” with Eddie Eagle, who told children, “If you see a gun, stop, don’t touch, leave the area, and tell an adult.” (Even now, Jane recites the mantra without hesitation.)

Back in New Mexico in 2002, it took a small faux pas at a luncheon for Republican women running for office to get Jane thinking about her own future in politics. She accidentally signed in on the wrong sheet. When she was called to speak as a candidate, she said she’d enjoyed the brownies but wasn’t running for anything. Judy Vanderstar Russell, a candidate for lieutenant governor, suggested, “Maybe you’re running for something and don’t know it!”

Months later Judy again brought up the possibility to Jane, who began to see the appeal in the idea. Jane’s mentor, former New Mexico Senator Les Houston, persuaded her to continue.

As with any commitment she makes, Jane took this one seriously: “If I make my mind up I’m going to do something, I’m going to do my very best—win, lose, or draw.”

She threw herself into her campaign, and wound up the first African-American ever elected on the state Republican ticket.

“It blows me away that people are surprised I’m African-American and Republican,” Jane says. “People think that if you’re Republican you kick the poor to the curb. I realize people need help. Long before I got into politics, I believed that you put a base in place for people to operate from, then they take off on their own. My problem is with people who keep coming back to the well.

The Bible says you’re your brother’s keeper, but it didn’t say 24/7. It also says to light the path and show them the way.”

Now at the end of her second term, Jane serves on the Business and Industry and Transportation Committees, among others. Representing Albuquerque’s West Side, Rio Rancho, Corrales, and Bernalillo, Jane views transportation—including the commuter train from Belen to Santa Fe— and growth as critical issues. She is concerned about allocating new projects with one-time oil and gas revenues. “They’re going to need recurring funds,” she says. And she’d like to see a UNM West campus.

Looking back, Jane says, “I let life lead me instead of me leading it. If there was an opportunity to do things, I just did them.” Watch for Jane's next turn along the road of opportunity.