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John B. Dalbey, 88, passed away peacefully at Heights Manor nursing home in the early hours of February 4, 2004. Many Albuquerqueans remember John during his 47 year career at then Albuquerque National Bank. John Dalbey started working at the bank as a messenger. He carried yokes of paper strips on his back from the Bank on Central Ave. downtown to the Alvarado Hotel where the strips were cut to make bills of currency. Among his many banking jobs and positions with the bank, John became the first manager of the Coors Branch of ANB and retired as a senior vice president in marketing in 1979. Except for a stint in the Navy as a sonar operator in WWII, John worked for ANB since his graduation from Albuquerque High School in 1933. He took banking courses in night school at UNM during the early part of his career. His memberships included the National Office Management Association and Financial Public Relations Organization. He was president of the 20-30 Club, a chairman of the Bernalillo County Red Cross, and a popular member of the Lions Club. At age seven, John traveled with his family to Mexico from Cedar Rapids, IA, where his father began a large-scale ranching operation in the Yaqui Valley. John and his family survived two Mexican revolutions before the Mexican government expropriated his family holdings forcing his family to return to the U.S. John and his sister Mary commuted to Albuquerque schools from the family's home in Sandia Park. Living a major portion of his youth in Mexico, John became fluent in a Spanish dialect common to rural Mexico that served him well throughout his professional career. He is survived by wife Hortense, daughters Carolyn Findley and Donna Ness, grandchildren Alan, Barby, and Becca, and great grandchildren Mason, Connor, Kaylee, Lindsey, and Camden. To honor John's love of pets the family asks in lieu of flowers that donations in John's name be made to Animal Humane Assoc of New Mexico, 615 Virginia St., ABQ 87108. Funeral service 1:30 pm Saturday, February 7, 2004 at French Mortuary, 7121 Wyoming Blvd. NE. (823-9400).
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