UW College of Arts and Sciences Names 2002 Outstanding Faculty

May 23, 2002 -- Kenneth L. Diem, Robert S. Houston, Wilson J. Walthall, Jr., and Roger Williams are recipients of the University of Wyoming College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty award for 2002. They will be honored at a banquet Friday, May 31, in the Wyoming Union Yellowstone Room.

Diem was resident ornithologist for the Department of Zoology and Physiology for more than 20 years. After serving four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Diem earned his B.S. degree in zoology at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wis., and earned both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at Utah State University in Logan.

During his tenure in the UW Department of Zoology and Physiology, Diem's classes in vertebrate biology, ornithology, waterfowl ecology, wildlife damage, honors zoology, and game and avian management formed the core of the department's wildlife program. He wrote more than 25 papers concerning wildlife biology and management, served as adviser and instructor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and directed and participated in numerous workshops that addressed wildlife management issues.

He served as director of the University of Wyoming National Park Research Center (UW NPS) between 1977 and 1989. Diem also served as acting administrative archivist for the UW American Heritage Center (AHC) between 1982-1983.

Houston, professor emeritus, earned both his B.S. and his M.S. degrees in geology at North Carolina State University and received his Ph.D. in economic geology at Columbia University. Houston joined the UW Department of Geology and Geophysics faculty in 1950.

During his tenure, Houston supervised more than 50 master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations and taught virtually hundreds of undergraduates at the summer Geology Field Camp, which he directed beginning in the mid 1970s until 1987.

Internationally recognized as an expert on the geologic evolution of Precambrian rocks, Houston spent most of his UW career mapping the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre Mountains. Houston served as chair of the UW Department of Geology and Geophysics between 1968-1986. He was acting vice president for Academic Affairs (1986) and provost and vice president for Academic Affairs (1987 1988). He also served as interim president of the university in 1987.

Walthall, professor emeritus, came to UW in 1947 as an assistant professor after completing his Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Texas. His areas of interest included latent learning, the behavior of plants, and physiological motivation caused by the central nervous system body interactions.

In 1965, Walthall became chair of the Psychology and Philosophy Department, as it was then known. One of his first acts in that position was to separate psychology and philosophy to create two departments devoted to each discipline. During his tenure as department chair, Walthall more than doubled the number of undergraduate courses and faculty and established a high level of research productivity and grant support. The graduate program was extended to the doctoral level with its clinical program fully accredited by the American Psychological Association and its neuroscience program strengthened its reputation.

Walthall twice served as acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and served as acting head of the Department of Botany (1980 1981) and the Department of Recreation and Parks (1983).

Williams earned his A.B. degree at Colorado College and both his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Michigan. He came to UW in 1971 to chair the Department of History and held that position until 1980. One of the first two UW faculty members to be named a Board of Trustee Distinguished Professor, Williams continued teaching until his retirement in 1988.

Williams wrote and published numerous works on the subjects of history, medicine, and botany. In 1984, he published, "Aven Nelson of Wyoming," an assessment of the famed UW president, professor, and founder of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium. He also wrote several biographies for taxonomic journals and scholarly articles and books about French botanists and plant classification.

Posted on Thursday, May 23, 2002