Donor Highlight

In their North Valley home, surrounded by ceremonial African masks, New Mexican tinwork chandeliers and sculptures salvaged from churches during the Mexican Revolution, Larry and Kelly Borgeson’s passion for art is on full display. That passion is matched by their deep commitment to their family, employees, company and the UNM community.

Larry and Kelly received their bachelor and master of fine arts degrees from UNM, having come to New Mexico in the early 1970s. “I was a Vietnam vet returning to school and UNM couldn’t have been more helpful,” says Larry. While at UNM, Kelly and Larry spent time as visiting artists at UNM’s Tamarind Institute, where they worked with apprentice printmakers. “It was the pinnacle of my years of devotion to studio art, from my teen years on,” says Kelly.

After graduate school, the Borgeson’s started an industrial cleaning company. Thirty-five years later, Rockefeller’s Cleaning and Restoration Co. and Rockefeller’s Construction, Inc. have fifty-five employees and a fleet of trucks that can be spotted statewide.

A few years ago, Rockefeller’s Cleaning and Restoration Co. gave a significant donation to Tamarind Institute’s building fund. Larry and Kelly also plan to leave part of their art collection, made up of important and significant works, to UNM for students and the public to access. “We are custodians of the art we have collected,” says Larry. “When we give back, it is our way of letting our family, employees, company and clients know how grateful we are for what we’ve received,” says Kelly.