Former art prof dies from cancer

Walker, who was born in Utah, quit school at 14 after his father's death to find work and support his family.

He found a job at RKO Studios in Hollywood, where he painted sets for several Fred Astaire movies.

"His work has a certain kind of intimacy that draws me in," said Nancy Solomon, Walker's friend and editor at the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography.

He also served as a flight instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1943-45.

In 1946, Walker began shooting freelance industrial, advertising and magazine photography across the Southwest.

He taught art and photography at six universities, including the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Florida between 1966 and 1985, serving at the UA as an art professor from 1977 to 1985.

When Walker was hired at the UA, he did not have a degree. The University of Florida, where he had taught before coming to Arizona, gave him a sheepskin with a handwritten degree on it.

Despite this obstacle, Walker was popular among his students.

"Students said they never missed his class," said Melanie, Walker's daughter. "They would get up early for his class and miss the rest of their classes that day."

Walker never lectured to his classes - he expected students to come to class prepared to ask questions.

"He was an encyclopedia on photographic processes," said Ann Simmons-Myers, Walker's colleague and friend of 20 years.

She said he was more interested in the experimentation and trial-and-error that went into each project rather than the finished product.

"He liked to see the stacks of 'I tried's,'" she said.

From 1986 until his death, Walker concentrated on experimenting with computers.

"He always said that he never knew what he wanted to do when he grew up, even at 80," Melanie Walker said.

Walker's greatest contribution to the UA was his willingness to share his wide variety of techniques and processes, said Roger Myers, associate librarian at the university library.

In his spare time, Walker was also an amateur astronomer, painter, computer programmer, gardener and homebuilder.

The Center for Creative Photography will remove several Ansel Adams photographs from their displays Oct. 25 to show Walker's work in a one-day exhibit. An exhibition is also tentatively planned for early next year to commemorate Walker.

He is survived by his daughters Melanie, of Boulder, Colo., and Kathleen, of Sylmar, Calif., and three grandchildren.

The family's memorial services were not open to the public.

Stephanie Corns can be reached via e-mail at Stephanie.Corns@wildcat.arizona.edu.