Louis Sadler

Ray Sadler, who taught history to generations of NMSU students, passed away

peacefully on Sunday, October 10, 2021. He was 84.

He was born Louis Ray Sadler on February 5, 1937, in Newton, Mississippi. The son of Bill

B. and Katie Mae Sadler, he grew up in Union, Mississippi. He graduated from Union High

School in 1955 and enrolled at Mississippi State University as a forestry major. He soon

discovered that what he really liked was reporting. He worked for the Jackson (MS) Daily News

while on a break from college covering everything from giraffes to high crime. On one of his

assignments, he met another journalist, Betty Miller. They were married June 24, 1961.

A daughter, Lesley Ann Sadler, was born December 12, 1963, and Ray decided it was

time to return to college. He earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in history from

Mississippi State University. In 1965 the family left for the University of South Carolina for Ray

to enter a doctoral program in Latin American history. On July 7, 1969, a son, William Foxworth

Sadler, was born. Less than two months later, the family moved to Las Cruces, NM, where Ray

joined the New Mexico State University history department faculty.

His first day at NMSU he met another new professor, Charles Houston Harris, III. He and

Charles were to collaborate for many years and became lifelong friends. Together they wrote

eight books, most having to do with the U.S. border in the years of the Mexican Revolution.

Many of their books won awards. One of the first books, The Texas Rangers and the Mexican

Revolution, received a coveted SPUR award from the Western Writers of America for the best

contemporary nonfiction book on the American West and the T.R. Fehrenbach Award from the

Texas Historical Commission. Their book The Archaeologist Was a Spy led to a TV appearance

on a History Channel documentary, The Real Tomb Robbers.

Ray retired from NMSU in 2000. He was a man of complex interests in politics, history,

and the world at large. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

He is survived by his wife Betty Sadler and his children, Lesley Ann Sadler and Will

Sadler, as well as his two grandchildren, Zachary Soules and Jocelyn Soules.

A memorial service honoring the life of Ray Sadler will be held at the Farm and Ranch

Museum in the Ventanas Ballroom on Sunday, October 24th at 2 p.m. The family asks that in

lieu of flowers, donations be made to the NMSU Department of History. Donations may be

made online to the NMSU Foundation. Checks made to the NMSU Foundation with the notation

'For Department of History' may be sent to the NMSU Foundation, P.O. Box 3590, Las Cruces,

NM 88003 with a note saying the donation is in memory of Ray Sadler.