Los Alamos 2026 Living Treasure John Ruminer. Photo by Kim O’Donnell

Editor’s note: John Rumineris one of three 2026 Los Alamos Living Treasures, along with Linda Daly and Kyle Wheeler

BY CRAIG MARTIN
Los Alamos Living Treasures

“Los Alamos was a closed town when I was a child. I knew we were special, but I didn’t really know why,” he recalled.

That curiosity eventually unfolded into decades of volunteering, lecturing, historicpreservation, and community service.

When he was nine, John moved to Los Alamos with his family in 1951. He attended Mountain Elementary, Pueblo Junior High, and Los Alamos High School. “It was a small town, and you knew everyone,” John said. The Ruminer family knew the Daly family, and before going off to college, John had his eye on Kit Daly. When asked how they met, Kit said with a smile “John picked me up at the corner of 42nd and Urban!” John explained, “After church one day, Kit was walking home. I gave her a ride there. After our first date, I knew I was hooked.”

John and Kit married and went off to the University of Michigan where pursued graduate work in engineering. “We moved away, you know, you go, you leave to go to school, you take a job, have kids, and then we just wanted to come back to New Mexico,” Kit said.

After returning to Los Alamos in 1975, John focused on his work at Los Alamos National Laboratory while becoming increasingly interested in local history.

“I had been reading by then of what put us on the map,” John said. “But I would say once I retired, that’s when I really got into the history community here.”

John found great rewards in volunteering on the board of the Los Alamos Historical Society. “I wasn’t just sitting back and going to meetings, it was an opportunity for me to get in there and make a difference,” John said.

He did just that.

John became deeply involved in preserving the Society’s historic properties. He first organized a team to renovate the Romero Cabin, stabilizing the structure and making it accessible to visitors interested in the early history of Los Alamos.

A much larger challenge came with the Hans Bethe House. After a January freeze caused pipes to burst, water flowed through the house for days, causing extensive damage, The then-owner said he couldn’t face the repair work, but he was willing to sell the property to the Historical Society.

“He knew we would take care of the place, but we didn’t have any money to purchaseand restore it,” John said.

John and other board members organized the “History Is Here” fundraising campaign, with John serving as Stewardship Chair. The drive brought in over $4 million in cash, property, and pledges. The funds made possible the purchase and restoration of the Bethe House, an overhaul of Society’s museum exhibits, and implementation of the move of the Society’s archives to the new County Municipal Building.

John spent a year painstakingly overseeing restoration of the Bethe House. “We replaced the whole boiler heating system, all the electrical, all the flooring, the kitchen, all the woodwork,” John said. “Then we opened it up to the public, which it hadn’t been before.”

Another historic property became especially meaningful to him. Because of their love for Los Alamos, in 2003 then-owners Jerry and Helene Suydam deeded their house to the Historical Society through a living trust that allowed them to live there.

“The Oppenheimer House is special to me, really special,” John said.

After Jerry died in 2011, John visited Helene regularly for the next decade. “The visitsallowed me to keep track of the maintenance needs of the property, but they became much more than that,” John said. “It was an opportunity to visit with Helene, and it was just wonderful hearing a lot of stories about Bathtub Row. She was a nice lady.”

“Once my interest in history got rekindled, it included regional history, you know, New Mexico history,” John said. “I started doing research on places in Santa Fe, particularly 109 East Palace. That was a lot of fun and I learned how to do historical research.”

John traced the ownership of the property, best known as the gateway through whichscientists and their families passed on their way to Los Alamos. John traced some 400 years of ownership of the property, and his resulting monograph was published by the Los Alamos Historical Society.

His regional interests led to his work with the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee, where he serves as the Community Outreach chair. “The committee allowed me to spread my wings to other regional projects,” John said. “I looked for ways for outreach and support other non-profits, particularly Native American programs.”

Through the committee, John had helped support educational programs at Santa Clara Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo, and the Santa Fe Indian School, including Native language preservation efforts. John has been involved with numerous non-profit organizations and groups throughout northern New Mexico. He enjoys helping build connections among the communities.

“I’ve always been proud of being from Los Alamos,” he said, “and I enjoy sharing stories of our town with others who might not understand who we are.”

But what John finds most rewarding is connections. “The most valuable part of volunteer service is the connections you make with people in the community and beyond,” John said. “I mean, every time I’ve gotten involved with some group, I have formed close, personal friendships. You really get to know people you like to be around and to be working with.”