Ron Walker: A Look Back
Deckle McLean
A recent visitor to Ron Walker’s office suggested to him that retirement can be frightening. Ron considered the idea for a moment and then shrugged as if to say, I’m not so sure about that. A thought ran through the back of the visitor’s mind: I guess after three tours of duty as department chair, nothing is frightening any more.
That’s right: Ron spent 12 years as department chair, 1986 to 1998. That was longer than anyone else within memory and possibly longer than any chair of this department has ever served. Now 19 years after he arrived from south Texas where he was chair of the division of arts and sciences at the University of Houston’s Victoria campus, he is in his last semester, looking forward to a working retirement of travel and writing.
He has left a deep impression on the department, in particular on the English literature curriculum, which, he noted, was “traditional” when he arrived. As he departs, curriculum revision is underway again, yet it builds on revisions reflecting his activities as chair.
When he arrived, an “old guard” faculty was closing in on retirement, giving him the opportunity to participate in the hiring of many new faculty. He helped hire over 30, including 19 current faculty. This, he said, “brought in new people and new ideas,” and contributed to the changes. Sound familiar?
One of Ron’s old-timer colleagues remembers it this way: “(The big changes) got rolling on his watch.” When Ron arrived, the historical period courses were surveys that did not encourage innovation. Currently the courses are “Studies in...” he said. “It’s still a time period, but you can develop your own theme, and follow the theme in the period. It was a paradigm shift. Ron pushed this, and it was hard for the department to change.” Lower division core courses were similarly altered and more latitude became available in them too, he said.
Yet there was more. Ron, this colleague recalled, supported Third World lit and ethnic lit and “was instrumental in opening the curriculum up to these.” And “he really supported teacher ed and developing those courses and hiring specialists.” In addition, he said, Ron supported Bruce Leland and Alice Robertson in enhancing the writing program. “Hiring this year in ethnic lit and creative writing can be seen as an extension of what he started.”
A look at Ron’s vita shows his involvement in curriculum did not stop when he stepped down as department chair. He chaired the curriculum committee for several years after that.
The journalism unit grew during his years as chair also, settling into an independent major that it had not had before and increasing course offerings. Ron had a hand in hiring four of the program’s current six faculty.
Ron has managed to have some fun. A chief example, he said, was his co-editing with June Frazer of The Cunning Craft, published by Essays in Literature in 1990. But, looking back on this collaboration by two friends enthusiastic about mystery writers, Ron was left with a lament. The same kind of fun is no longer available. Essays in Literature, the department’s own publishing arm, is gone, and the local collegial publishing possibility was lost with it. “Faculty work together all the time on committees and such, but rarely have a chance to collaborate on things closer to their hearts,” he said. “That kind of collaboration is really good for morale and enhances our visibility beyond the university. It’s too bad we’ve lost (Essays in Literature).”
Ron has had impact as a teacher too. One of his current students was willing to offer a fresh look. This is not just any student. He’s a TA and an intern in Ron’s myth class. Also Ron is his thesis advisor, and he took the myth class as an undergraduate. That course changed his life, he said. “(Ron) is the reason I’m doing English and the reason why I stayed an extra year,” he explained. He took the course—that’s Eng. 355, Myths, Legends, and Literature—;as he was studying identity formation in psychology, recognized the overlap, and wanted “to learn more about human behavior as revealed in myths.” Next year he will start doctoral work that will incorporate the mythic approach to identity, all because Ron “had a neat approach to myth.”
Ron, this protégé observed hesitantly, is “a little bit old fashioned” in that he “lectures quite a bit.” But, he said, “It worked for me,” and he explained why: In student-centered classes where students generate much of the material, some students may feel adrift, and may need lecture to provide background and a framework, he said. He put Ron on a dream team with John Hallwas as another who can use lecture effectively.
Ron understands the protégé’s perspective. “The lecture approach is probably better for some students who are not comfortable with so much involvement and talking in the classroom,” he observed. “Journals and discussion boards probably are a necessary option for the ‘silent’ students, and that’s why I use them to supplement class discussion.”
A look down Ron’s list of publications—five-plus pages of books, articles, book reviews, and conference presentations—reveals Graham Greene’s name nine times, so it is no surprise that Ron looks forward now to writing a series of articles on Greene plus maybe a book. He had considered giving this project an immediate boost by attending some NEH seminars in the coming year; but he has had to drop that plan because of a conflict: He and his wife Leslie have signed up for some of President Al Goldfarb’s theatre crawls to New York. That’s his theme for retirement—writing and traveling. And he will continue to live in Macomb where we can easily stay in touch with him. During his last semester, though, we’ll need to figure out a few ways to say “Thanks.” Here’s a starter.
