in Memoriam : Jim Bonnell

we are ROBBtrust
beloved longtime board member
Jim Bonnell (1939-2025)
July 2025

Jim was a longtime board member and past Chair of the Robb Trust. Here is his obituary as it was printed in the Albuquerque Journal. He is dearly missed by many. 

James E. (Jim) Bonnell, age 85 died on July 17, 2025. From pioneering Otero County families, Jim was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 22, 1939, to Charles E. Bonnell and Edith Ogle Bonnell.

After graduating from Alamogordo High School in 1957, Jim's education included a Masters in Music Education (plus 45 credit hours) which included a Certificate of Administration and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. His graduate and post-graduate work, in addition to UNM, included Eastern New Mexico University, Western State College of Colorado, New Mexico State University, Eastman School of Music-University of Rochester, and Indiana University. He began his teaching career in Artesia, NM, where he met his lifelong beloved collaborator, Paula Diane Thompson, from Trumann, Arkansas. They were married in 1964 and recently celebrated their 61st anniversary.

After a career in New Mexico public schools in Artesia, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque which spanned almost thirty years, Mr. Bonnell retired in 1989 from Albuquerque Public Schools where he served in various positions including Instructor, District Specialist, District Coordinator, and District Director (Acting) of Music Education. In 1989, Mr. Bonnell began a second career in the non-profit field working with both the Boy Scouts of America and then with Jan Hosea & Associates, LLC, in April of 2002. He served as Chief Operations Officer for Madden Hosea & Associates.
Jim held leadership positions in numerous community and professional organizations and was recognized in 2019 with the New Mexico Platinum Music Award "for extraordinary lifetime achievement". He was currently Vice Chair of the University of New Mexico's John D. Robb Musical Trust Board of Directors, and an Advisory Board member of the New Mexico Performing Arts Society of Santa Fe. He previously served as Education Vice President, Program Vice President, Strategic Education Chair, and Ethics Education Chair, for the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals, and was a past president and member of the Advisory Council of the Albuquerque Arts Alliance. Other affiliations have included Board of Directors, UNM College of Fine Arts Alumni Chapter (Past President), the New Mexico Music Educators' National Conference (Past President, Hall of Fame), the 1992 Arts Education Conference, and Arts Attack! Creating the Future, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Musicians (Past President), Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque Board of Trustees, and ACE Committee of Albuquerque Public Schools (Co-Chairperson). He represented the Great Southwest Council/Boy Scouts of America in many community roles including the District Advisory Council for Safe and Drug Free Schools, The Educational Success Alliance (Past President), the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Career Guidance Institute K-12 Committee and Blue Ribbon Outstanding Students and Educators Awards Committee, and the Advisory Council for TASA (Team Against Substance Abuse in APS).
As a professional musician, he performed as a violist in many Southwestern organizations including the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Opera Southwest, the El Paso Symphony, the Roswell Symphony, the Albuquerque Civic Symphony, the New Mexico Chamber Orchestra, and retired in 1997 as principal viola of the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque. He conducted various orchestras in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program: Valley Junior Orchestra, Heights Junior Orchestra, Albuquerque Junior Symphony, and Albuquerque Youth Symphony. He was also active as a church musician having either served as organist and/or choirmaster at St. Matthew's and St. Michael and All Angel's Episcopal in Albuquerque, St. Andrew's Episcopal (substitute) in Las Cruces, and St. Paul's Episcopal in Artesia. Mr. Bonnell filled the role of conductor, adjudicator, and clinician on many occasions in Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. He also was a presenter on several topics for professional education conferences in the Southwest and served as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Charles and Grace Bonnell and James N. and Dessie Ogle; his parents, Charles and Edith Bonnell, and his sister, Betty Jean Bonnell Artz. He is survived by his wife, Paula Diane Thompson Bonnell, and family members including: Sue McAdams, Karen and Howard Slinkard, David and Judy Thompson, Jack Artz and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

Jim and his wife Diane, also a retired public school music educator and a professional arts administrator, most recently with the UNM Music Prep School, are members of St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Albuquerque. Services will be held on August 5th (A Music Tribute at 1:30 and service at 2:00) at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Albuquerque, NM. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Music Program at the Cathedral Church of St. John (318 Silver Avenue SW, Albuquerque), The Diane Bonnell Scholarship Endowment for the UNM Music Prep School (UNM Foundation), the UNM Robb Musical Trust (UNM Foundation), The Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program, or The International Myeloma Foundation.

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