Across the 30 years of his professional life, Salcido also served in the Peace Corps in Honduras, was general manager of KINT-TV in El Paso and was president of the Paso del Norte Group. His job with Paso del Norte was to unify business and political interests in El Paso, Las Cruces, Juárez and Chihuahua, a fitting task for a man of Salcido's talents, said his friend, Hector Gutierrez Jr. "He loved problem solving. He was intense about everything he did," said Gutierrez, a retired business executive who now works as a management consultant. Always intense and usually the leader of whatever group he was in, Salcido played quarterback and was student body president at El Paso High School. Friends say he never bothered to take a break at halftime of football games, choosing instead to play trumpet in the marching band.
Obituary for Honduras RPCV Pablo Salcido
Longtime public servant Pablo Salcido dies of cancer
By Milan Simonich / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/19/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
EL PASO -- Pablo Salcido, a longtime public servant who worked on the staff of former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros and later ran El Paso's economic development and public housing agencies, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer. He was 52.
Across the 30 years of his professional life, Salcido also served in the Peace Corps in Honduras, was general manager of KINT-TV in El Paso and was president of the Paso del Norte Group. His job with Paso del Norte was to unify business and political interests in El Paso, Las Cruces, Juárez and Chihuahua, a fitting task for a man of Salcido's talents, said his friend, Hector Gutierrez Jr.
"He loved problem solving. He was intense about everything he did," said Gutierrez, a retired business executive who now works as a management consultant.
Always intense and usually the leader of whatever group he was in, Salcido played quarterback and was student body president at El Paso High School. Friends say he never bothered to take a break at halftime of football games, choosing instead to play trumpet in the marching band.
He graduated in 1974, then went on to Austin College in Sherman, Texas, for his bachelor's degree. He received a master's degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
Salcido could have immediately started a career in government or business, but chose instead to serve in the Peace Corps. Upon his return to the United States, Salcido went to work for Cisneros, who was elected
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mayor of San Antonio in 1981. Salcido was part of the economic development that brought Sea World to Texas.
Salcido returned home to El Paso in the late 1980s as the city's first economic development under Mayor Jonathan Rogers.
He left once more for a job with the International City/County Management Administration, in which he helped emerging governments become functional in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
But, Gutierrez said, Salcido loved El Paso and returned in March 2006 to become president and chief executive officer of the housing authority. He lost that position after just eight months. Salcido sued the agency, saying the board chairwoman forced him out of his $160,000-a-year job after he blew the whistle on improprieties.
He moved on to work for the Paso del Norte Group and then as head of Tigua Inc.'s business operations. He had barely begun his last job when doctors diagnosed him with inoperable pancreatic cancer, Gutierrez said.
Salcido had withered from 210 pounds to about 100 pounds when he died at his Upper Valley home on Saturday. With him were his wife, Cheryl, and their three children: Jordan, 19, Briana, 17, and Alyssa, 14. Services will be Tuesday at St. Mark's United Methodist Church.
Times City Editor Milan Simonich may be reached at msimonich@elpasotimes.com or 546-6125.
