Dr. Laurence C. (Larry) Walker was born in Washington, D.C., September 8, 1924.  As a youth he joined the Boy Scouts, which provided him a lifelong sense of dedication and perseverance.  He earned the rank of Eagle Scout and continued in scouting, accumulating numerous awards including the Silver Antelope and the Distinguished Eagle Scout for service to the forestry profession.

In 1943, while a student at Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Walker was called up from the enlisted reserves, took basic training at Camp Fannin in Northeast Texas, and served a stint at Washington & Jefferson College in western Pennsylvania.  He was then stationed in Europe, even past V-E Day, as a member of the occupation forces before returning to continue his education.  He earned a BS degree at Penn State, a master of forestry at Yale University, and in 1953 a Ph.D. at New York State University College of Forestry.  He did not pursue these degrees consecutively, but worked between his studies for the USDA Forest Service as an assistant district ranger on the Sabine National Forest and as a research forester at Brewton, Alabama.

Dr. Walker began his teaching career in 1954 at the University of Georgia, and moved to Stephen F. Austin State College in September 1963 as head of the Department of Forestry.  There were fewer than 100 forestry majors when he took over, but when he retired as dean of the College of Forestry in 1977 there were more than 1,000 majors.  He was the Lacy Hunt Professor of Forestry until his retirement from teaching in 1988.

Dr. Walker was instrumental in continuing the pamphlet collection of the Forestry Library, housed in the Department of Forestry, and insuring its permanence in 1965 when it moved to the college library.  The collection contains many East Texas forest history items.

The Texas Society of American Foresters, for which he chaired numerous committees, honored him in 1999 by renaming the Distinguished Service to Forestry Award as the Laurence C. Walker Distinguished Service to Forestry Award.  Dr. Walker had received the award in 1968.

Dr. Walker was a prolific author.  His repertoire ranged widely, including history, silviculture, forest fertilization, Texas timber enconomy, and other topics.  He was a frequent contributor to the Farmer-Stockman from 1971 through 1985.  He also conducted oral history interviews with many individuals made famous by the East Texas timber trade.  Those included Paul Hursey, Don Young, Joe McPherson, W.E. Merrem, Ed Prud’homme, “Andy” Anderson, and Caton Carter.

Among Dr. Walker’s books and articles are the following on East Texas forest history:

•  Axes, Oxen, and Men, 1975. Pictorial history of the early days of the Southern Pine Lumber Company.
•  Excelsior: Memoir of a Forester, 1995. Autobiography.
•  “Four Who Counted.” East Texas Historical Journal, Fall 1991.
•  The Southern Forest: A Chronicle, 1991.
•  The Southern Forest: Geography, Ecology, and Silviculture, 1996.
•  “Young: Early Professional Forester in Texas.” Texas Forestry, May 1982
•  “Camp Fannin: A Reminiscence.” East Texas Historical Journal, Fall 1999

Bob Currie paid Larry the ultimate compliment in his article, “Trail Blazers: Laurence C. Walker,” in Texas Forestry, March 1988.  The sentence that exemplifies what Dr. Walker meant to East Texas reads: “Dr. Laurence (Larry) Walker of Nacogdoches, is a good steward, well known in the field of forestry, but possibly destined to be recognized as an even better steward of life.” Dr. Laurence C. Walker died July 26, 1999.