Walter Isle: 1933-2010

Abstract

Walter and I met in Houston, Texas, as chairs of our cross-town English Departments. Governance quickly took a back seat, however, to talking about the contemporary literature that we each taught. Later, I tried what Scott Slovic had once done with me. “Might he,” I asked, “be interested in a new organization focused on nature literature?” Walter's smile answered that question even as it forecast how thoroughly he would later serve ASLE. Nature literature and ASLE ruled from then onward. This shared enthusiasm for all things ASLE launched many years of friendship, built on Houston lunches and ASLE conferences. Our bi-weekly conversations constituted a long-lasting, highly enjoyable, jointly led continuing-education seminar. Sometimes, we met at our homes or occasionally outdoors at Pam and Walter's central Texas farm, a green refuge complete with country music on the porch, a huge garden out back, and a stock pond in walking distance. In 1995, Walter drove to the memorable first ASLE gathering in Fort Collins, Colorado, in his old red pick-up truck. Back home in Houston, we celebrated both the chance to talk environmental literature with like-minded souls and the realization that the field now had a place in English departments. Years of good papers and panels followed from Walter at every ASLE meeting until 2007, when family business kept him away.