Tom was/is a force of nature. I attended SIU from 83 to 86.

“Take your hands out of your pockets!” That is the first thing I think of when I remember Tom. I had come to Carbondale from Montana and still thought it sensible to put cold hands in pockets. There may have been an explanation but I didn’t know what it was… perhaps it was a habit of the lazy or that I was playing pocket pool. I stopped doing it though, at least till I graduated. Another that comes to me is: It’s Bissett like Kiss It! And the proper way to remove an avocado pit was not to pry it delicately from the side after it was cut in half but to strike the nut sharply with the knife and Twist It… like Kiss It. And I still remove avocado pits like that to this day. Each of my fellow students had their impersonations of Tom.

In retrospect, it seems that what Tom wanted most from us was to take the bull by the horns. Confrontation was not to be avoided, in fact sometimes it appeared that Tom created drama intentionally to provoke confrontation. This was much different from my advanced abilities to fly under the radar. At first the question had been: Tom Walsh, lovable teddy bear or the Iron Chancellor? He projected a gruff, disciplined, no nonsense persona which was very effective as far as keeping a recalcitrant bunch of kids in their mid-twenties in line. But as time went by, the lovable teddy bear would surface more and more. He had a great sense of humor and I thought he was funny much of the time. There was also the sense that he thought that we were funny although he may have been more amused by us than anything. Still, he hung out with us and drank withus and we talked and argued frequently.

Then of course there was the holy trinity: carbonara, puttanesca and pesto. Once a year we descended on Tom’s house, making sure that we had starved ourselves the day before. I may have eaten my body weight in pesto. There was the annual pig roast with the limerick contest… the more vulgar the more likely to win. The roasting started on Thursday and by Sunday afternoon, the pig finally cooked, we were all in the throes of complete bacchanalia and Tom was right there with us.

In addition to these educational milestones, Tom also provided us many of our first professional exhibition opportunities and was adamant that we prepare for our future lives as sculptors. He has always been a prolific artist himself and modeled that commitment. He was a master at finagling assistantships for the department and through those convoluted strategies we met working painters from Chicago and helped them create their first three dimensional pieces. Tom took us to Ernest Trova’s house in St. Louis which I remember was more like a museum. He took us to Chicago to see the Chinese Bronze show. We were given the opportunity to do an independent study course with Tom in lieu of an art history credit where we chose books to read off a list he’d made. We met on Saturday mornings at a breakfast place and discussed what we’d read. This may have had the greatest influence on me because the books were erudite and challenging and I doubt I would have felt up to them if we hadn’t been required to read them for the class.

I admire Tom a great deal and have mostly fond memories of the three years in Carbondale. Now that I’m older than he was then, it’s almost more impressive that he so faithfully wrangled such a bunch of rowdy sculptors to be, many of whom have gone on to do similarly at universities around the country. I continue to count myself lucky at having crossed paths with Tom.