Jesse Franklin-Owens

Jesse picked Silver City out of an atlas as a place to escape the bitter Missouri cold and as a next adventure in January, 1978.  He worked in a cafe, and did woodworking until he took over management of the Silver City Food Co-op.  He co-managed the Co-op for two years.  Subsequently he met his wife to be Georgeann, and has been married for 31 years.  They have four children and two grandchildren.

He returned to college shortly after meeting Georgeann and graduated from WNMU with a Bachelor of Academic Studies in 1983. He attended the Montessori Institute in Washington DC for one year and received a Montessori International Elementary Degree.  Returning to Silver City he joined the Guadalupe Montessori School and opened the Elementary Program. He worked at the school for nine years and helped develop two classes – the 6-9 year old class and then the 10-12 year old class.

In 1993 he opened his own private school, Meadow Hawk Erdkinder Montessori Jr High.  He ran the school in Arenas Valley for 18 years. In the summers he contracted with the US Forest Service and hauled Fire Crews and set-up and managed Recycle Centers at large incident Fire Camps. During this period he served on several community organizations in a variety of roles.  Guadalupe Montessori Board of Directors, Instituto De Paz Board Member, CWG (community work group) a super-fund style group working on monitoring Historic Mine Reclamation Work, GRIP (Gila Resources Information Project) Board Member, Silver City Comprehensive Plan Group (1994),  Silver City Trails and Parks Committee, Silver City Skate Park Committee and Grant Count Peace Coalition Member.

Currently retired from teaching he runs a Potable Water Delivery Service (Meadow Hawk Water), serves on some of the above groups, has joined the Whiskey Creek Volunteer Fire Department and is a board member of Gila / Mimbres Community Radio. His primary interest in the Radio project is to bring the perspective of an educator and a youth advocate to the board. As well he is very excited about the potential for the radio to serve the function of a meeting place for the various diverse and at times conflictive factions in our community. He believes that through dialogue and interaction there exists the potential for resolution or at least better understanding of some of the outstanding issues in our community.

Jesse is the current board chair.