The team at The Las Vegas Optic is bidding a final farewell to Art Trujillo, who, in a career that spanned more than 70 years, went from selling copies of the newspaper on the streets of Las Vegas to writing a popular column well into his retirement.
Trujillo passed away May 8 at the age of 85.
“He was The Optic,” said Maria French-Sanchez, graphic designer and office manager at The Optic, when asked about Trujillo’s impact on the newspaper. “I can’t think of The Optic without thinking of Art.”
Phil Scherer, editor of the Las Vegas Optic, said Art Trujillo was the heart and soul of the Optic for years.
“Between his work as a columnist and as a copy editor, he was dedicated to this newspaper and this community and wanted both to thrive,” Scherer said Wednesday. “I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him for two years, and was even more fortunate to be friends with him in the years that followed.”
“He made his mark on this newspaper and his absence will definitely be felt,” Scherer said.
When he was about 10 years old, Trujillo was a newspaper boy for The Optic, selling the paper around Las Vegas, said his wife, Bonnie Trujillo, on Tuesday. When Art Trujillo was in high school in the 1950s, he served as the newspaper’s sports editor and photographer.
Trujillo earned several college degrees and lived in various places across the U.S., but eventually found his way back to his hometown of Las Vegas. He taught journalism, English and speech for some time at New Mexico Highlands University before retiring in the late 1990s.
After his retirement, Trujillo returned to The Optic and became a part-time copyeditor. He also began writing his well-known column, Work of Art, which spanned topics such as Trujillo’s experiences growing up in Las Vegas, his work as a paperboy, the history behind local buildings, area businesses, his travel adventures, his children and his perspective on a variety of issues.
“He would always write his (column) as more of a question for his readers,” French-Sanchez said. “Getting (readers) to think about the current topics, whatever they were at the time. He was really good about getting you to think about what was going on.”
Scherer said Trujillo stopped writing the weekly column in October 2020; however, Trujillo turned in some columns after that. The very last Work of Art column was published in March 2023, Scherer confirmed.
French-Sanchez said many in the community expressed how much they liked Work of Art. She said that anytime she told someone she worked at The Optic, the first thing people would say was that they loved Trujillo’s column.
“He was our celebrity,” French-Sanchez said. “Everybody knew The Optic meant Art.”
French-Sanchez has been working at The Optic since 2002. She noted that The Optic has been through several major changes over the years, including several changes in ownership, relocating its offices, and reaching a milestone of 125 years of existence in 2004. Trujillo was a mainstay through it all, French-Sanchez said.
“Everybody else changed, but Art was always there,” French-Sanchez said.
When The Optic moved from 614 Lincoln Ave. to its current location at 720 University Ave. in February 2017, the newspaper’s team found several pieces of old equipment. Trujillo could tell them what the old artifacts were.
“He was a walking encyclopedia,” French-Sanchez said. “There was nothing you could ask him that he didn’t have the answer for, especially if it was history, anything about the English language, journalism.”
“It was nice to work with someone who had so much history,” French-Sanchez added.
French-Sanchez remembered Trujillo as being a “big jokester,” someone who always had a smile. French-Sanchez said that when Trujillo was The Optic’s copyeditor, he would “grade” her work when he read it.
“He would always give me a ‘B’ because he knew I hated Bs,” French-Sanchez said. “I always told him I was an ‘A’ girl.”
Trujillo would jokingly tell French-Sanchez, “better luck next time.”
Despite the Bs given in jest, French-Sanchez said Trujillo was one of her biggest supporters when it came to pursuing a master of arts in media arts and computer science at NMHU.
“He would always tell me that I was better than I thought I was,” French-Sanchez said, admitting that she can be her own worst critic. She said Trujillo agreed to be on her graduate committee, a position that implied that he would help her successfully complete her final graduate project.
She earned the degree at New Mexico Highlands University in 2010.
“He was one of my biggest supporters, my biggest cheerleader,” French-Sanchez said.
“I’m going to miss him.”
David Giuliani, who worked at The Optic from 2004-2010, also remembered Trujillo’s sense of humor. He recalled an instance when Trujillo noted that the word “avid” only appears in obituaries in which the deceased is described as an avid hunter or an avid gardener, for example.
The word does not seem to be used in any other context outside of an obituary, Trujillo had noted.
“Art was avid at a lot of things,” Giuliani states in a Facebook post. “Picking up on the quirks of life was one of them. For instance, he pointed out the absurdity of a restaurant server saying, ‘If you need anything, my name is Mary.’ The obvious reply for Art: ‘If I don’t need anything, what is your name?’”
Tom McDonald, former editor and publisher of The Optic, described Trujillo as someone who was kind, friendly, and witty.
“(Trujillo) was the power and the force behind The Optic,” McDonald said with a laugh, before explaining that the newspaper had once received an anonymous letter stating that Trujillo was, in fact, the power and the force behind The Optic.
Trujillo was the senior member of The Optic before McDonald arrived at the newspaper in 2004.
“Everyone had a great affection for him,” McDonald said.
McDonald described Trujillo as a committed journalist with a long life of newspapering. The two taught at Highlands together on a number of occasions.
“I feel proud to have shared part of my career with him,” McDonald said.
Trujillo’s wife, Bonnie Trujillo, acknowledged his great sense of humor. She also said Art Trujillo had a knack for languages, picking up some Zuni and Navajo when he and Bonnie Trujillo were teachers around Gallup and McKinley County.
Trujillo went on to complete undergraduate studies at New Mexico Highlands University before earning a master’s degree in English literature at the University of Virginia and another master’s degree – this one in journalism – at the University of Missouri.
Trujillo worked briefly at the Gallup Independent. He also published a small newspaper in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, before returning to Las Vegas. He was a professor of mass communication at NMHU for 29 years.
Bonnie and Art Trujillo were married for 57 years. They had three sons: Stanley Adam, Diego and Benjamin.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, May 17 at 11 a.m. at First United Presbyterian Church in Las Vegas.
