Futuro McAllen Founder Dies

Rick De Julio, a longtime McAllen history buff and community advocate, died on Wednesday. De Julio, among other things, helped found the community watchdog group Futuro McAllen.

He was very interested in the history of McAllen and Hidalgo County. I met him when I was opinion editor at The Monitor; he wrote a guest column that I published.

As radio station KURV (where he once worked) notes:

Rick De Julio was the chairman of the McAllen Historical Center and the motivating force behind the creation of the McAllen Historical Commission. He was a founder of the community development group Futuro McAllen and worked tirelessly to preserve local building as historic sites. ...

Nedra Kinerk with Futuro McAllen credits De Julio's tenacity for ensuring that McAllen celebrated its Centennial on time ....

Among De Julio's achievements to preserve local history, he was able to list the Sam and Margerie Miller house on 15th St. in McAllen as a Texas Historic Landmark.

One thing that strikes me: I read his newspaper obituary (second from the top) and discovered he was almost 59 years old. But when we met, his appearance and personality led me to believe he was at least 15 years younger than that. My condolences to his family and friends.