2022 Outstanding Exes
Mark Blumenthal
Class of 1964
Mark Blumenthal has been devoted to herbs and medicinal plants for over 50 years as a researcher and educator and is considered an International Thought Leader in the field of medicinal plant research and education. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the American Botanical Council (ABC), an independent, international nonprofit research and education organization, and is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of HerbalGram, ABC’s award-winning, peer-reviewed journal.
Mark is also Founder and Director of the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program, an international consortium of nonprofit organizations that researches and educates industry members, academic researchers, and government agencies, on adulteration and fraud of botanical raw materials, extracts, and essential oils in the global supply network.
He has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. Served as senior editor of The Complete German Commission E Monographs—Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines and senior editor of three additional leading reference books, in the field of medicinal plant research.
He has been an advisor to the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the United States Pharmacopeia, and the World Health Organization, and has testified before two White House commissions and before the U.S. Congress. Mark has received two honorary degrees including being named to Natural Health Magazine’s “Hall of Fame” (March 2001), the Lifetime Leadership Award by Nutrition Business Journal, the esteemed Varro E. Tyler Prize from the American Society of Pharmacognosy, and Outstanding International Ethnopharmacologist of the Year (2018), by the Indian Society of Ethnopharmacology.
Colbert Coldwell
Class of 1961
Colbert's father always had a soft spot for El Paso High School where he graduated in 1915. Colbert said, “Growing up, my dad taught us the EPHS Fight Song: ‘May you wave on high your banners, etc.’ and my siblings and I thought it was a gag, but we went along with it. When his dad retired from the Navy, they moved back to El Paso in 1957 and he was enrolled in the 8th grade at EPHS, it was natural.
One of the friends he met in the 8th grade, George Peinado, remains one of his closest friends 60 years later.
Having gone to over 10 different schools, he felt as though he had finally reached his home school and has been a loyal and proud Tiger ever since.
Carrying on the family tradition, Colbert attended the University of Texas for undergraduate and law school. He is now in his 58th year practicing law in private practice.
One of his most recent accomplishments is the book he and Clinton Cross have written about the life and times of his great-grandfather, Colbert Coldwell. Sr., who was a guide and translator for the Doniphan Expedition, during the Mexican War, after having come through El Paso as a Santa Fe trader as early as 1839.
Coldwell is a collector of maps of the desert southwest, has studied in Mexico City and London and he has traveled widely through Europe and Russia.
Colbert still remains very active in the EPHS Class of 1961, because he truly feels El Paso High gave him more than an education. It gave him contemporaries and friends 60 years later. He wants to continue to give back even a small amount of what he received.
Coldwell and his wife Eleanor have six grandchildren, among their 4 children.
Linda Troncoso
Class of 1965
"Teaching is not what I do, it is who I am!”
Linda Rios Troncoso was born in El Paso, attended Morehead Elementary and attended EPHS from 8th grade, until graduation. As the editor of the Tatler, she had the honor of attending the historic meeting of the presidents of the U.S. and Mexico.. After graduating, the El Paso Times offered her a full scholarship to attend UTEP to study Journalism. Always thinking she would become a news reporter, a dear professor and mentor directed her to a job as the journalism teacher at Riverside High School and she never turned back.
Linda is a life-long educator, who continued teaching at El Paso High School. She served as board president for UTEP Alumni Association, EPHS Alumni Association, and the Young Matrons Auxiliary of the Women’s Club. She has given back to El Paso as a volunteer in many charitable ways.
During her time on the EPHS Alumni Association, she organized the Diamond Jubilee, a six-month celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Lady on the Hill. She served as the scholarship chair for 13 years, continuing to encourage the next generation with scholarships.
Linda is an EPHS Tiger. She is passionate and dynamic and she carries the EPHS tradition and spirit with her in every conversation.
Married to her high school sweetheart, Nacho, and they have two beautiful children, Linda a civil engineer, and Nacho an attorney, who both live in El Paso.