I'm sorry to have to report that Sam Ballen passed away on Tuesday night. Sam was my neighbor and he and his wife, Ethel, were both good friends of my grandparents. Sam has owned the historic La Fonda Hotel on the Santa Fe Plaza for 39 years, and will be missed by many.

My last memory of Sam was from late December - we had just received two+ feet of snow. I was at the bottom of my driveway in my1964 Mercedes Unimog trying to bust through the drifts, and I see 84 year old Sam trudging down the street shovel in hand. I jumped out to see him and he said that he was walking down the road to dig his car out from the ditch he had gotten stuck in earlier that day. Of course, instead of him shoveling himself out, we used my Unimog to pull him free. Best wishes to the whole Ballen family.