Family, friends remember Ortiz y Pino

Dr. Loretta Ortiz y Pino, a prominent health care professional and community figure in Taos County, died Feb. 28 at her home in Taos.

Ortiz y Pino, 63, died of ovarian cancer after undergoing 14 months of treatment. A public memorial celebration is scheduled for March 26 at 3 p.m. at the Sagebrush Inn Conference Center, located at 1508 Paseo del Pueblo Sur.

“Loretta was the most unconditionally loving person I have ever met,” said her wife, Melissa Kennelly. “I can say that no one has loved me as deeply and openly and without hesitation as Loretta has, and I’m so fortunate to have shared even just four brief years with her. She also surrounded herself with the most amazing friends, whom I have now inherited as my own friends. Along with everyone else in this community, I am truly blessed to have been so deeply touched by Loretta.”

Kennelly and Ortiz y Pino first met in 2011 while doing legal work for Holy Cross Hospital. They were married in their back yard in October 2015, not long before she was diagnosed with cancer. Ortiz y Pino’s former partner — Callie Williams — also died of cancer in 2012.

A practicing physician for decades, Ortiz y Pino had a profound and wide-reaching career in health care.

She moved to Taos in 1991, joining Dr. Charlie Anderson in his pediatric practice — the Taos Clinic for Children and Youth — as a co-owner until 2005. Ortiz y Pino then co-founded Sustainable Health Innovations with Williams, an organization that educated health care practitioners in integrative medicine. From 2007 to 2011, she was a consultant pediatrician at the Taos-Picuris Indian Health Center. She later served as the chief medical officer at Holy Cross Hospital until 2015, and she was also the director of the hospital’s integrative CARE team. She started her own hypnotherapy practice in Taos and was most recently the co-founder and board president of Integrative Medicine de Taos (IMdT).

Ortiz y Pino’s community involvement through boards, committees and other routes was also extensive.

A few of the groups she was involved with include the Quail Roost Foundation, Community Against Violence, Taos Maternal & Child Health Committee, Taos Child Protection Team and the Shiprock Home for Women and Children. She was appointed as a trustee by then-Gov. Bill Richardson for the New Mexico Children’s Trust Fund.

Family and friends say Ortiz y Pino comes from a long line of explorers, historians, politicians, teachers, herbalists and curanderos. Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, is one of her five siblings.

“She was the bright light of our family,” said Sen. Ortiz y Pino in a social media message March 3. “A Stanford Medical School graduate who was completely at home growing garlic and Nicaraguan beans. And everything she touched was blessed. Adios, hermanita. Que Dios te reciba! [May God receive you.]”

Ortiz y Pino was born and raised in Santa Fe to a family that has been in New Mexico for about 13 generations. She attended Loretto Academy and graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe in 1971. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1976 and a medical degree from Stanford in 1981. Ortiz y Pino completed her pediatric residency at the University of Colorado Denver, where she also served as chief resident. She then served for four years as a pediatrician with the Indian Health Service on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock. From 1990 to 1991, she lived in Nicaragua as a visiting teacher and liaison between the UNM School of Medicine and the medical schools in Managua and León.

Kennelly said Ortiz y Pino was “a woman of many skills and talents, and she worked hard to be good at all of them.” She played classical guitar starting at the age of 5 and was still playing just a couple weeks before she died. Ortiz y Pino took cello lessons with Mark Dudrow and played pre-Baroque music every Tuesday for years with Peggy Nelson, Rebecca Hall, Tina Hahn and Carol Weaver.

“She was vitally concerned with any type of abuse toward children — physical, sexual, emotional — and became a board member of Community Against Violence and believed passionately in their work,” said Nelson, a retired judge and Taos resident.

Nelson and others also remember Ortiz y Pino as a lifelong athlete and outdoorswoman.

“Loretta was passionate about her work, but also loved to have fun — hiking, biking, kayaking, canoeing. She was quite skilled with a paddle. There were lots of hikes and river trips. The most memorable hiking trip was to Mount Kilimanjaro in 2005,” Nelson said.

Kennelly said Ortiz y Pino worked out with a personal trainer twice a week, even during her chemotherapy. “She loved playing golf at the Taos golf course and other courses around Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado,” Kennelly said.

Friends and family remember her as a person with profound spirituality.

“Loretta had a deep and active spiritual life involving Buddhist practices, meditation and being open as a conduit to communicate universal truths,” said Kennelly. “At the end of her life, she worked with friends Kat Duff and Mirabai Starr to create a book to share these universal messages. The book is nearing completion and we are seeking a publisher or will self-publish it.”

Ortiz y Pino was named a Taos News “unsung hero” in 2012 and received many other awards and recognitions.

“Loretta had a wonderful and absolutely unbeatable passion to caring for the children and people in our community,” said Malinda Williams, executive director of Community Against Violence. “I felt supported and inspired by her. Her passion, way of living and her drive to better our world is a legacy she leaves to us all.”

Editor’s note: Dr. Charlie Anderson, responsible for bringing Ortiz y Pino to Taos in 1991, is raising funds to place a memorial bench in her honor on Bureau of Land Management land in the area of the Rift Valley Trail. He can be reached at (575) 758-9272.