My involvement with Tom began well before he came to Carbondale; Tom ran the Drawing Program at Murray State University and taught Sculpture when I arrived from Massachusetts for my freshman year in 1965. My first Drawing class with a different instructor was an eye-opener, but when I took my second class I sought out Walsh because I knew he had designed the program and was regarded as a “tough cookie”. I learned a great deal about the craft of drawing, but of greater importance was his attitude about art in general.  It was an endeavor worth pursuing as much as writing or composing. It was a field worth engaging because it was “serious”, even when being playful, and could be about the expression of profound ideas.

In June of 1967 Tom was hired by Milton Sullivan to teach Sculpture at SIU-Carbondale. He was especially mandated to investigate and promote the ceramic shell investment technique.

I was pursuing an MFA in Painting and Printmaking at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, a short drive north from Carbondale. On May 1st,1970 riots erupted across the nation fueled by the war in Viet Nam and exacerbated by the bombing in Cambodia. SIU-C was especially hard hit, buildings were torched (including the small fledgling foundry). SIU closed its doors and classes were canceled. Soon after, Walsh’s home burned down. Alleviating this was Tom’s winning the Rome Prize and he was off to Rome for 27 months of an uninterrupted studio involvement. After re-emergence in the “real” world, he was lured to California to teach 9 bronze casting workshops in the CSU system concentrating on the ceramic shell investment technique.

Returning to Carbondale in 1978 he began to expand the graduate program in sculpture and soon, had an enrollment of 14 students. When Tom returned from California, I had just been hired to teach Painting and Etching at SIU. Tom had provided me with a strong recommendation for the job, so once again I had much to thank him for.  He also recommended my wife and I (Charlotte had also been an art student with me at Murray State and had Tom as a Drawing teacher) to Senator Paul Simon to rent their house in Carbondale while he was in the senate in Washington D.C. Tom, and his wife Kathy, bought an old house on the same block and began to renovate it.

The Graduate Program in Sculpture, at its new location at the Southern edge of the campus, began its “golden years” in the 1980sand 90s. Year after year Tom was very selective in bringing students to campus to “interview” with students already in the program. During Tom’s tenure at SIU he gave over 50 “visiting artist” workshops at campuses across the nation. What he was doing was evaluating seniors in Art who then, if lucky, would be invited to SIU to “interview” with students already in the Program. At least half the students in the program were recruited this way, his Visiting Artist plot was, simply, a recruiting device, and it worked.

The Sculpture Program hosted over 60 artists during a 14- year run. The individual, often a painter, usually an artist who had minimal foundry experience, would arrive on campus late on Sunday, and would take up residence at Tom’s house. The artist was assigned 2-3 graduate students for the entire day, assisting him, or her, in the creation of what would become a mold which would be subsequently cast in bronze, one version being the honorarium for the visit and the second version going to the SIU Art Museum that had helped fund the visit. Each night the visiting artist was a dinner guest of the students who had been the technicians that day. No one else was allowed at the dinner, no faculty, no “hangers-on” and NOT Walsh (who set it up and was in complete agreement   with the strictures).  When the Dean showed up at the foundry and asked to be invited to the dinner, he was told that IF he helped the following day and assisted the artist from 8:00AM to 5 PM and if he contributed to the dinner, he would be welcome, otherwise NO. Guess what happened. The dinners were a huge success, each team vying for the most delicious dinner award. The visiting artists applauded the entire enterprise, often staying at the host’s house until the early morning hours.

For most of Tom’s tenure there were 14 students in the 3 -year program. Each student had a tuition waiver and, for the most part, each student had a half-time Assistantship. The Art Department usually awarded Sculpture 3-4 “half-times”. How Tom squirreled out the rest is anyone’s guess but, he did.

Meanwhile, my relationship evolved with Tom from that of a mentor to a friend and educational colleague. We were in the same social circle and made international trips together. When his marriage to Kathy ultimately ended, I remained his friend thru his bachelor days. When he met a sculptor and professor at San Jose State University, Linda Rosenus, I watched their relationship blossom. Tom eventually chose to retire and move to California with her and re-establish his professional career in San Jose. When Tom left, the singular mission of foundry went with him.

Since 1985, casting has remained part of my aesthetic practice. Almost all my work has been cast at the SIU Foundry. However, when Tom retired in the late 90s and moved to California, the Foundry became less and less the center of sculptural activity on campus.

In 2023, when I tried to cast a new piece of work there, I was told by the current Head of Sculpture that only current students were allowed to cast at the Foundry. It seems that the openness and adventurous policies of the past have ended. At some point in the mid 90s, I recall Tom saying that he thought that, in the future, the SIU-C Foundry would be remembered as a hotspot of art casting activity in American university sculpture programs. I was pretty sure he was right at the time. Now I’m sure of it.

I know this narrative is much more than a few paragraphs. However, having known Tom for 61 years inhibits my ability to summarize. Tom Walsh has been my teacher, my mentor, my colleague, and continues to be my friend.  His work in developing the casting program at SIUC and furthering the use of the ceramic shell process throughout university campuses nationwide is significant and I applaud the effort to bring that history to light.