I entered the SIU School of Arts in 1970, and within a year I was in one of the required sculpture classes with Tom Walsh as professor. That particular class met in the Glove Factory, a vintage building gutted and redesigned for the University’s sculpture classes, and a number of faculty and graduate student studios.

Tom was a no-nonsense teacher, clear in explanations, demonstrations with materials and procedures, and readily available to students. With a well-developed background in bronze casting, Tom began to develop a program that would soon be sought out by many potential students who were looking for a serious quality education in sculpture. Not only did Tom teach sculpture well, but required readings i.e. Marshall McLuhan, Bucky Fuller and Carl Jung…making us think as well as sculpt…leading students to question “what is a visual language for?’    He recommended other authors whose work contributed to a more substantial understanding of technology, symbols, and sculptural language in general. Parts of the program that I especially appreciated included visiting artists presenting their work.

One experience, in particular, was very influential for several of us in the undergrad program.  In 1972 four of us (Hans Gill, Rich Johnson, Jim Rourke and myself) had been producing work in the sculpture foundry, a large industrial Quonset hut on the edge of town (Carbondale). Walsh invited us to attend a casting workshop at California State University, Humboldt, for the summer session.

Arcata was a small college town on the coast. Steve Daly, an old friend of Tom’s, was one of the professors in the sculpture department, and had a large presence in the art department. Maris Benson, a former student of Tom’s, had the other sculpture position…and gave his barn to camp in the first night we arrived. The foundry housed several furnaces and a cupola, which was, at the time, a novel piece of equipment for those of us unused to casting iron. We had always used crucibles. Our temporary residence became the loft of the foundry. Walsh came in early each morning and was usually at a table creating wax maquettes with a pipe in his mouth while sipping coffee. The example he set was one of a steady, focused artist continuing to work each day. Few would have known at the time what contacts, travel and correspondence was going on to build the program at Southern Illinois.

I performed miserably as a student my senioinr year, Fall semester. Thanks to a “wake-up” call in the form of a “D” grade for the semester, in sculpture, no less…I had to get back in the game. I got my B.A.  ’73 and split for California w/o grad ceremonies.

After a year of travel and non-academic hiatus, and looking at graduate programs that offered the MFA, I got a call from Milton Sullivan, Chairman of the School of Art at SIU…asking if I wanted to accept a “teaching assistantship”, a position which would pay for grad school tuition and rent. Milton said, “you won’t get a better offer than this.” I knew he was right, and in the fall of 1974, I returned to Carbondale as a graduate student…not knowing at the time that Walsh had wanted the old foundry crew, as well as several grad students bolstering the foundry program and operation. By June 1976, I had an MFA degree, thanks largely to the mentorship of an artist and educator, Tom Walsh.