Obituary of Luis D. Romero

LUIS D. ROMERO

Age 99, Luis made his journey home to our Lord on June 30, 2023. He was born in 1923 in Tucson, AZ to Higinio Romero and Ramona Dominguez. In 1950, Luis married Martha Jayme and together they raised six children – three sons and three daughters.

Most people don’t know that Luis was originally named “Walter” by his mother, but at his baptismal, a suggestion was made to the family and his alternate name was chosen. Although the family chose Luis, during most of his lifetime, his mother and sisters always called him Walterio or hermano. Luis held his sisters in high regard and stated many times to us that they always took very good care of him when they were growing up during the Depression. He was very proud to know that his Romero family was part of Tucson’s founding history starting with arrival of his great-grandfather in 1860.

Luis was also very proud of the fact that he came from a family of musicians. His mother taught him to play guitar and he was able to play guitar with the local bands at the various Tucson dance halls. When Luis joined the US Navy in 1943, served aboard the battleship USS New Mexico, he was able to play guitar for his shipmates during the few times the Navy arranged for entertainment. At discharge in 1945, Luis came home to Tucson to work and to take care of his mother and sisters. To earn extra money, he again played his guitar with local bands at dance halls or clubs.

Right after WWII, Luis was hired by Howard & Stofft, a local office supply business, as their delivery man. Eventually, PBS & W purchased that business and Luis was transferred to the warehouse. It was during this period that Luis incorporated his talent for the repair of office equipment and ultimately provided an additional specialty of office repair services to PBS & W’s clients. Again, Luis’ employer was merged with a larger office and paper supply corporation Boise Cascade. Luis was then promoted and became the company’s primary office installation technician for clients all over Southern Arizona. Luis took many employees under his wing to teach them office furniture repairs, how to complete large office installations, and was proud of the mentoring he provided to these young men. Luis retired from Boise Cascade in 1988.

Boy Scouts of America has always played a very strong role in Luis’ life. During the Depression, Luis wanted to be part of scouting and made a promise to himself that one day he would join the Boy Scouts. He finally made his promise come true when he had his sons join St. Ambrose Catholic Church’s Troop 100. The Church was looking for a leader for their Boy Scout troop and Luis volunteered to be the troop’s scout master. He made sure no boy was excluded from joining Troop 100 and encouraged many boys to join their troop. The Boy Scout Council re-assigned troop numbers and Troop 100 became Troop 710. This troop remarkably achieved a total of 14 young men to become Eagle Scouts during Luis’ tenure as scout master.

Luis retired from scouting in 1988 after nearly 25 years with the Boy Scouts. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Otis Chidester asked him to join in the effort to open a Boy Scout Museum in Tucson. Luis immediately became a founding charter member of the Otis H. Chidester Boy Scout Museum. For most of his retirement, Luis was instrumental in working to get the exhibits built, cataloging donated scouting artifacts, prepping the buildings for display of scouting memorabilia, and helping to landscape the grounds for Southern Arizona’s own scout museum.

Another life-long interest of Luis’ was attending rodeos. He and Martha traveled a lot to attend rodeos including the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. He loved going to the southern Arizona rodeos, such as the annual Fiesta de la Vaqueros – he would never turn down an invitation to go to a rodeo.

Luis was preceded in death by his sisters Carolina Robledo, Celia “Sally” Timmerman, Delfina French, Belia Romero and half siblings Helen and Manuel Valenzuela; his two children Christina Romero Tearney and Adam Romero.  He is survived by his wife Martha, his children Walter (Deborah), Dale (Gloria), Annette (Roy) and Gina; son-in-law Charles Tearney. He is also survived by his grandchildren Monica, Margaret, Melanie, Lauren, Pilar, Daniel, Andrea, and Rachel; great-grandchildren Adam † (Alyssa), Stacy, Chelsie, Savannah, Solana, Sophie, Leilani, Ariana, and Avery.

Celebration of Luis’ life will be held on Saturday, July 15, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. at the Brings Broadway Chapel, 6910 E. Broadway Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85710. Luis will have a private interment held at Holy Hope Cemetery at a later date.