Dr. Dennis M. Walsh, Idaho State University English professor for 24 years, retired last December after a 40-year teaching career. Walsh joined the Peace Corps and taught English and French at a high school in Liberia in the 1960's
Professor plans to study, travel, exercise in retirement
WALSH
POCATELLO - Dr. Dennis M. Walsh, Idaho State University English professor for 24 years, retired last December after a 40-year teaching career. He was awarded emeritus status at May's commencement, according to a press release.
"I've been really happy with living in Pocatello," he said. "There are places to fish, ski, ride bikes - it's been a good place for me and I intend to live here in retirement."
After growing up in a small rural town in Minnesota, Walsh attended the University of Notre Dame, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English in 1963. He worked his way through school and was the first in his immediate family to graduate from college.
Walsh then joined the Peace Corps and taught English and French at a high school in Liberia. In 1965, he enrolled on a full-tuition scholarship at Harvard University and received his master's in Teaching English a year later.
He then moved to Istanbul, Turkey, and taught English at a private school. While teaching there, he spent four summer breaks in France for only about $1,000 per summer.
"I like living in foreign cultures. It's interesting to experience diverse cultures and world views," he said.
Walsh received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame in 1973. After teaching at the University of New Orleans, Northern Arizona University and Fort Hays State University in Kansas, Walsh came to ISU in 1979.
He took sabbatical leave at the University of Arizona, which led to his becoming director of composition at ISU for six years. Two years later, he taught as a Fulbright Scholar in Rwanda, Africa, before returning to ISU in 1988.
Walsh enjoys Pocatello's rural setting, somewhat like that of the Minnesota town where he grew up, and said ISU's smaller size appealed to him.
"I wanted to teach students like myself and give them some advantages that I didn't have," Walsh said. "I also wanted to live in the mountains."
At ISU, Walsh taught undergraduate and graduate courses in literature, writing, linguistics, and pedagogy. He served on numerous councils and committees at ISU and hosted several workshops for teachers and students.
He has researched, published and lectured on a variety of topics, from grammar to Native American literature to Edgar Allan Poe.
"I see myself as a teacher," he said, "and, as a teacher, what I try to do is reach everybody, especially students who seem least interested in English - work with them, improve their skills and make a difference in their lives."
A couple of years ago, Walsh received an e-mail from a former student who had taken an introduction to literature course from him eight years prior. Walsh remembers that the freshman football player was not serious about literature at first.
"Then he came alive - discovered he had a brain," Walsh said.
In the e-mail, the former student, who now owns his own law firm near Chicago, expressed appreciation to Walsh for teaching him how to think.
"For those passionate about teaching, it is truly rewarding when suddenly something comes out of the blue like that," Walsh said.
Although Walsh focused on 19th century literature in graduate school, he began an interest in Native American literature in 1976 while living on the Navajo Reservation and teaching at Northern Arizona University. He read history, anthropology and literature, published several articles and later helped create the Indian studies program at ISU.
During the 2002-2003 school year, Walsh took sabbatical leave from ISU to write a collection of personal essays concerning his travel experiences. He recently returned from a conference in Virginia on Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark.
An avid biker, Walsh plans to combine travel with study and exercise for "pure enjoyment."
This summer, he and a friend will bike across Kansas, and he plans to bike in Canada in the fall. Walsh will visit a former graduate student and her family in China next spring.
