In tribute: A lasting impression: Lonzo Lassiter

PORTALES - Lonzo Lassiter made a lasting impression on students and faculty alike as an instructor at Eastern New Mexico University.

Lassiter died on Dec. 8 at age 70, and Patricia Dobson, chair of the ENMU Communications Department said, "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he's gone."

Darrell Roe, another communications faculty member, remembered Lassiter as a "kind, kind person."

"It would pick up your day when he talked to you," he said.

Lassiter also had great stories, he said, especially about people Lassiter had known in construction and the music business.

Dobson said Lassiter was a Renaissance man, one who could do a wide variety of things very well, and especially, "He had a gift for working with students."

She then pointed out Lassiter's "great sense of humor."

"He was a prankster," she said.

Lassiter had a moustache that draped around his chin, a video featuring Lassiter shows, and Dobson said he crafted the same moustache on a mannequin head and gave it "awful hair," so its appearance was scary. The mannequin head would find its way throughout the building, including Dobson's office.

"I would come in from a faculty meeting," she said, "and there that head would be, on my desk or even hanging from the ceiling."

Mostly, however, Lassiter's dedication to creating opportunities for his students was what Dobson remembered most.

He helped set up video productions at ENMU, at Clovis Community College and in and around Portales. Whenever he was called, Dobson said, he would bring students to help out and learn the craft of video.

Dobson said Lassiter could work as a producer, a set designer, a camera operator and could set up camera shoots. "He just knew what needed to be done and could do it."

Roe remembered, "He helped me put our radio station together. He made our our radio room more professional like a studio, a professional radio booth."

Lassiter was also a skilled ceramic artist.

"He showed the same patience in learning pottery that he did as a teacher," Dobson said.

Even more remarkable, Dobson said, was that Dobson did not discover college or communications until he turned 50.

An article published in 2011 in the Eastern New Mexico News stated that Lassiter had been working as a carpenter when he had some surgery that left him unable to continue in that line of work.

According to his obituary published in The News, Lassiter had also worked as a signalman for the Santa Fe Railroad, and a machinist, before his life changed at age 50.

After the surgery, he turned his attention to college and enrolled at ENMU. As a student, he discovered communications, and became a star among non-traditional students at ENMU. He went on to earn a master's degree in communications, working in the video production skills as he worked toward the advanced degree, Dobson said.

Dobson said ENMU readily placed Lassiter on its faculty when he earned the master's degree.

Lassiter retired from ENMU in 2018. His legacy, Dobson said, was his gifts for working with students and people in general.

Roe remembered that people were drawn to Lassiter.

"People drew to him because of his personality and genuineness," Roe said. "He was a kind, sincere person."

Roe remembered that Lassiter also visited his special-needs granddaughter in Albuquerque whenever he could. He was quite fond of the granddaughter and was saddened when his health changed and he could not travel as much.

After learning of Lassiter's death, Dobson said, she went to work to establish the new Lonzo Lassiter scholarship for students in the Communications Department.

The first such scholarship, she said, will be awarded in April.