Martha Riley Binford

Martha Riley Binford

1956-2022

Martha Riley Binford, wife of Kit A. Zimmerman, passed away from amyloidosis on May 12, 2022.

She was born to Lewis R. Binford and Jean R. Binford (nee Mock) on Aug. 12, 1956, in Chapel Hill, N.C. She attended Oberlin, Ohio Schools in 1964, and graduated from Oberlin High School in 1974. She studied at the University of New Mexico, where she received her BA in anthropology and master’s degree in training and development.

She worked many joyful years for the Office of Contract Archeology in Albuquerque, doing analysis, writing reports and doing field work. Her early years as a work study student at OCA shaped her life. She loved archeology more than any other work she did, and was so grateful to have walked so much of the New Mexico landscape on archeological surveys. She had many archeological publications and contributed or edited most of the many volumes produced during the Enron Transwestern Pipeline projects.

She later changed her career to education and received her master’s degree in training and development. She became an educational administrator at continuing education at the University of New Mexico, retiring in 2008 due to blood cancer. She enjoyed her work there. She was a senior program manager of the business and technology programs, and was grateful for the many people she met and staff she supervised.

She enjoyed gardening, landscape design, photography, painting, camping and her family and friends in her retirement. She loved many people and felt the heart was boundless.

She was preceded in death by her brother, Lewis Clinton Binford; stepbrother, Joseph Howell; both her parents, and stepmother, Mary Ann Howell Binford (nee Wilson), of Corrales, N.M.

She is survived by her wife, Kit Zimmerman, of Oberlin, Ohio; stepbrother, Grey Howell, of Corrales; stepmothers, Nancy M. Stone, of Albuquerque, and Amber Johnson and family of Kirksville, Mo.; and numerous cherished cousins.