Crash victim loved community service

CLOVIS - Marcos Urban Jr. "lived for community service" and was en route Friday morning to a funeral in Portales at the time of his fatal collision south of Cannon Air Force Base.

Urban Jr., 64, was transported to Plains Regional Medical Center with critical injuries and died at the hospital soon after a head-on collision Friday morning on State Road 467.

Urban Jr. was driving southbound on SR467 in a 1996 Cadillac and was struck when Octavio Vasquez, 28, of Clovis, attempted to pass a concrete truck in the oncoming lane while northbound, officials said.

Vasquez, who was driving a 1996 Fort Aerostar, was ultimately flow to Lubbock with critical injuries and on Saturday afternoon was in stable condition at a hospital there. He remained at Covenant Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. The incident remains under investigation, according to a news release Friday from Curry County Sheriff Wesley Waller.

Urban Jr. was one of 19 children and a lifelong Clovis resident, his eldest son Mario Urban told The News. Urban volunteered extensively at the Lighthouse Mission and local senior centers after his retirement from the management of a furniture store.

"My dad knew everybody in this community. He would help people," Mario Urban told The News in a phone interview, noting the steady stream of folks visiting Saturday afternoon to share their remembrances. "He quite literally went to several funerals a month, even if he just barely heard of them. He would always go to somebody else's funeral or rosary. He was heading to a funeral in Portales (on Friday morning)."

As for the circumstances of Urban's passing, his family and friends are understandably in shock.

"Especially with how it happened: he has never been in a car accident his whole life," his son continued. "He goes under the speed limit everywhere. He's always been extra cautious. He's never even backed into anything."

Urban Jr. is survived five children, all of whom live in Clovis, grandchildren and his wife of more than 40 years, Susie Urban.

Lighthouse Mission Director Richard Gomez said Urban Jr. started volunteering around 2001 and for 17 years put in "probably 50 or 60 hours a week" and "helped us grow in the ministry in the Mission from one level to a higher level.

"He wanted to help people and wanted to be a part of this community of helping," Gomez told The News. "He worked with the clients that came in, he would also deal a lot with the people that donated to us. He kind of knew all the people that would come and go."

Urban Jr. "lived for community service," said his son, and "quite literally would give the shirt off of his back."

A visition is scheduled for 1-5 p.m. Thursday at The Chapel, 1500 N. Thornton, followed by a 6 p.m. rosary. On Friday morning a rosary will be held at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church followed by a funeral mass at 10:30 a.m. and burial at Mission Garden of Memories.