Genovevo (Gene T.) Teodoro Chávez Ortiz, Ed.D. is a community archivist and historian. His family roots are in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. He gained his love of history and culture from the childhood trips that his family took throughout the Southwest visiting relatives who lived in places like Trinidad, Colorado, Raton, Watrous, Golondrinas, Mora, Las Vegas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Later, Arizona, and California were added to places his family would visit. He became intrigued with the diversity of cultures that co-existed.
He first moved to Overland Park, Kansas in 1962 to attend Kansas Christian College (KCC) where he majored in Sociology and Religion. He married and transferred to Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) and graduated in 1966 with a B.S. Ed., Spanish Major. He returned to KCC in 1966 to teach Spanish language and literature. In 1976 he completed his M.A. in Cross-cultural Counseling at Arizona State University (ASU).
