Collegio Online

Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: Campus Life

Media Credit: Aaron Anders Robert Walter, dean of learning resources, announces his retirement after working for Pittsburg State for 28 years.

Robert Walter, dean of learning resources, will say goodbye to PSU this year, after having worked on campus for 28 years.
"He's a good boss," Betty Geier, senior administrative specialist in Axe Library, said. "It'll be hard to train a new one."
Randy Roberts, curator of special collections, says he doesn't want to see Walter leave either.
"He's very supportive of me," said Roberts. "I wasn't happy to hear him announce his retirement."
Walter says he'll miss the people he works with, but he's looking forward to the time retirement will give him.
"I'm an old man," Walter said. "I want to do some things while I can."
Things are a vast understatement.
"He loves to travel," said Roberts. "He'll get in a car and travel hundreds of miles and not think anything of it."
Walter, who majored in political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says he spends a lot of his time in South America.
"Lately, I have been spending most of my time in the Southern Cone - Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile."
Of the nine official PSU study abroad trips to Paraguay, Walter has gone with seven.
During his time at PSU, Walter created a number of strong relationships with the students and faculty.
"There's hardly anybody on campus who doesn't know Bob Walter," Roberts said. "He's been the dean since I came here 12 years ago."
Gustavo Pezzi, whom Walter calls an especially good friend, was an exchange student at PSU, who majored in computer science and math. He is currently a programmer and a professor in Brazil.
Although Pezzi and Walter aren't close in distance to one another, he says Walter is still a strong influence in his academic and professional life.
"My decision to pursue my degree from PSU was encouraged by Bob, and for that I will be eternally thankful," Pezzi said in an e-mail. "I am certain my life is not the only one he has changed for the better."
Andre DeCastro, a former PSU exchange student, lived with Walter for a semester.
"Bob was a good friend and mentor," said DeCastro, who now works in Tulsa, Okla. "Living with him was an opportunity to improve my English and dive into the U.S. culture."
Walter's plans after leaving PSU involve even more travel, and engaging in history, which is one of his many interests. Recently, Walter has made special trips to see all four covered bridges that still exist in Missouri.
"I enjoy ... transportation and migratory history," Walter said. "The Locust Creek Covered Bridge was on my way to Kirksville, Mo., and I stopped there. It was actually on the earliest transcontinental road in the United States."
Still, with the many adventures ahead of him, Walter leaves his position at Axe Library with a touch of reluctance.
"I'll miss watching technology change around me," Walter said. "And I'll miss the people."

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