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Print this pageHistory maker... Still making history at 100
From elevator operator to longtime civic leader, Phoenix’s Adam Diaz has touched many lives
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For more than 70 years, Adam Diaz championed the Mexican American community. He was born in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Sept. 2, 1909, but has been a resident of Phoenix for more than 95 years.
He began working as a messenger boy after the untimely death of his father, and soon was hired by George Luhrs Sr. in the Luhrs Hotel as an elevator operator.
The Luhrs family put Adam through business school, and in time, he was named Superintendent of Properties for the Luhrs properties until his retirement.
Diaz is noted for having been elected as Phoenix’s first Mexican American City Councilman in 1953. He served four years on the council and one year as vice mayor of the city of Phoenix. He later served for five years in the Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1.
Diaz has been involved in key projects over the years that made contributions to downtown Phoenix. He assisted the government efforts to renew the urban area with clean up and restoration of many downtown buildings and residential areas. He assisted with fundraising and providing materials of the 1890 vintage for the restoration of Rosson House, to which the Luhrs properties donated various materials, photos and furniture.
Diaz served on the board of directors of two community-based organizations: The Friendly House and Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC). He served actively in several other organizations, commissions and committees: the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Arizona Centennial Commission, the Governor’s Conference on Youth, the Boy Scouts board of directors and the Vesta Club.
In the 60’s, he chaired the statewide Viva Kennedy campaign in Arizona. As Chairman of the Board of CPLC, he went to Washington to lobby HUD for funds to build senior citizen housing for low-income Latinos. This resulted in Casa Primavera, the senior housing complex on McDowell Road for low-income seniors.
Later, President Bill Clinton appointed Diaz to the Task Force on Aging. He went to the White House to meet with Tipper Gore and discuss Social Security, Medicare and other important issues to seniors.
At American Legion Post 41, he organized numerous fundraising events to help indigent elderly buy dentures and hearing aids, items not covered by Medicare.
And when Diaz was in his 70’s, he went to the YMCA gym each day and assisted 80- and 90-year-old men as a trainer in the summing pool and weight room.
He was honored in 1994 with the Profiles of Success Hall of Fame Award from Valle del Sol; the 1995 Valley of the Sun Humanitarian Award and recognized in the 1999 Historymakers Gala V by the Historical League, Inc., of the Arizona Historical Society.
Diaz still lives in Phoenix and has been an active supporter of Vice Mayor Tom Simplot and former-Governor Janet Napolitano’s campaigns. In 2008, the Phoenix Heritage Commission, Mayor Phil Gordon and Councilman Simplot named the West side senior center in honor of Adam Diaz.
Lisa Urias is the granddaughter of Adam Diaz and Olivia Diaz is his daughter.
