A geographer who has spent 35 years teaching students about the impact of humans on the environment will retire this spring from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Professor Tom Detwyler of geography/geology, who has taught at UWSP for the past 20 years, will leave his teaching duties at the end of the semester. However, during retirement he plans to continue to study and write about environmental quality. His first project is to complete a book which will examine the effects of corporate capitalism on life support systems.

Detwyler teaches about 600 UWSP students each year in a popular lecture class called The Physical Environment Under Stress. Because of the large numbers of students he has worked with over the past 20 years, he says he can�t go anywhere in the state without encountering his former pupils.

Chair of his department for six years, Detwyler was charged with leading the revitalization of the geography/geology program at UWSP when he was hired in 1981. He says he and his colleagues worked together to make their program one of the best geography programs at any four-year campus in the country.

Detwyler believes a secret to success is to hire the right people and foster a "true democracy." He says everyone in the department is engaged in making important decisions especially those involving hiring and budgetary matters. The opinions of new faculty members are often weighed more heavily than those of tenured professors.

Detwyler speaks highly of all his departmental colleagues, and also commends Program Assistant Diane Stelzer because of her service to and knowledge of the department. The motto among students, he says, is "Any questions? Ask Diane."

In 1989 Detwyler received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to produce a videodisc entitled "Our Environment." Throughout the past two decades, he has been at the forefront of using new visually rich teaching materials in his discipline. By the late 80s, under Detwyler�s leadership, UWSP was at the forefront of the UW System and the nation in using technology in the geography/geology classroom. In recent years, members of the department have pioneered the development of Internet-based learning materials, including case studies and virtual field trips, thus giving students more flexibility in when and where they learn.

He says he has appreciated the emphasis placed on quality, use of electronic tools in the classroom and commitment to excellence in teaching during his two decades at UWSP.

Before coming to UWSP, Detwyler taught at Willamette University in Oregon for three years and at the University of Michigan for 12 years. A Michigan native, he holds degrees from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and The Johns Hopkins University.

In addition to scholarly activities during retirement, Detwyler plans to travel in the United States and Europe, to play tennis more often and expand his jazz listening hobby. He also anticipates spending time with his four children who live in Minneapolis, Madison, Ann Arbor and Chicago.

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