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- [S2927] Find a Grave, 28 December 2018; Clifford Gray.
Family and friends bade farewell to a New Mexico law enforcement legend Saturday.
Clifford "Slick" Gray was remembered in a memorial service at Baca's Funeral Chapel. Darrell Witmer, of the First Christian Church, Deming Masonic Lodge No. 12 and Deming Police and Luna County Sheriff's Office conducted the service, with inurnment following at Mountain View Cemetery.
Gray died Tuesday at his home. He was 86.
As a Gadsden, Ariz., native, he was Luna County Sheriff (1967-70), Lordsburg Police Chief (1970-77) and Deming Police Chief (1977-91) in a law enforcement career that began with a security position at Deming Air Base. In the early 1940s, he joined Deming's Police Department as a patrolman.
Those who knew him well remember him as "a man's man," as one friend said, and a "cop's cop," as another said.
"He was a loving dad, a good grandfather and a good great-grandfather," said Arlene Nabours, Gray's daughter, "but I can't separate the two (law enforcement and every-day life). My dad's life was law enforcement."
He will always stand tall in the eyes of Deming Police Chief Police Chief Michael Carillo called Gray his mentor.
"My first chief in Lordsburg," Carillo said of his career's start in 1971. "He was instrumental in the reason I'm still a police officer."
There was no police academy in 1971, Carillo explained.
"Slick Gray taught me the things I needed to survive on the street as a police officer," Carillo said. "He was my mentor. I'm proud to say that. He was a cop's cop, very well respected throughout the state."
Luna County Undersheriff Raymond Cobos has a favorite memory.
"One incident I remember the most -- and not that we did this," Cobos said, laughing, "is the practice of a lot of law enforcement along Interstate 10 (taking undesirables) and dropping them off in other jurisdictions. Slick called (from Lordsburg) for Fred De La O (then Luna County Sheriff) and told me to remind him that the interstate ran both ways. I was just a rookie. I was scared. He said, 'No, just remind Freddie the interstate runs both ways, with two lanes.'"
Fred Rossiter, now a Luna County Medical Investigator, first knew Gray as an officer in 1959, then while a fireman in 1961.
"The only thing I can say about Slick is in all of the time that I've known him, Slick was a true policeman's policeman," Rossiter said. "There was nothing petty about him."
Away from the office, Gray was active in the Masonic Lodge and with the Shriners.
"He was such a dedicated Mason," said Jack Coussons, who also served Luna County as sheriff. "He taught a lot of people. He taught me. When you have to go through the various (Masonic) degrees, you have to go through a lot of things.
"The Masonic Lodge was a good part of his life. And the Shriners ... he sold onions for the children."
Gray was also an outdoorsman, said K.L. Nabours, his son-in-law.
"He liked to go arrowhead hunting" Nabours said, noting Gray had about 30 arrowheads. "He liked to go fishing, camping. He liked to go over to T or C and do the Hot Springs and mudbaths and stuff."
Gray worked as a cowboy in Hatch and Arrey before marrying Nelda Ward in 1938 and moving to Deming.
He married Marjie McNutt in 1947.
Among memories Nabours has of her father are two of special note.
"He had a letter from J. Edgar Hoover," she said of correspondence from the former Director of the FBI, "that he had an uncanny ability of knowing when something was wrong -- when a license plate on a car was dirty, covered with mud, and the rest of the car was clean. He had an uncanny ability to know those things."
And there was a gun, Nabours said.
"He recovered Pancho Villa's gun one time when it was stolen from Columbus," she said. "He was pretty pleased with that."
An honor guard gave Gray a 21-gun salute Saturday.
Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 28 December 2018), memorial page for Clifford "Slick" Gray (unknown–21 Feb 2006), Find A Grave Memorial no. 13473617, citing Mountain View Cemetery, Deming, Luna County, New Mexico, USA ; Maintained by Kenneth D. Bogard (contributor 46562702) .
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(Age 86 years)