An important historian of Arkansas, Dr. Robert Bradshaw Walz was an extraordinary teacher and able scholar who served twice as president of the Arkansas Historical Association and on its board of directors for two decades. He was best known across the state for collecting and preserving Arkansas history in early photographs.
Dr. Walz's greatest professional commitment was to teaching. Born September 27, 1918, the only son of Joe and Lolla Bradshaw Walz in Ashdown, Arkansas, he decided, while attending Magnolia Agricultural and Mechanical College, to become a historian. This choice was due in part to his fascination with an unusual history instructor who served as a model for his own teaching. Dr. Walz recalled once: "I didn't major in a subject. I majored in a teacher . . . he played the flute in class and talked about interesting things." Dr. Walz taught at several institutions, including Texarkana College, the University of Texas at Austin, East Texas State University, and Drake University. But he was most content at his alma mater, now Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia, to which he returned in 1958. There, his classroom each semester overflowed with students, attracted by his memorable teaching and by the personal interest he took in each individual student. He was chosen SAU Honor Professor in 1979 and was named the university's first distinguished professor emeritus upon retirement in 1987.
He received professional training from two of America's greatest historians. Awarded a graduate assistantship to Louisiana State University, after obtaining a B. A. from Henderson State College in 1941, he worked for Professor T. Harry Williams. The Second World War cut short that first apprenticeship. After serving in the United States Army Air Force, he married Curtistine A. Parsons of Texarkana and then went to the University of Texas at Austin where he was a graduate assistant to Professor Walter Prescott Webb. In 1958 Dr. Walz completed his dissertation on "Migration to Arkansas, 1834-1880."
Although he published sparingly, Dr. Walz contributed significantly to research on Arkansas history. Often critical of what he saw as the modern scholar's main shortcoming, he said: "There is a tendency for professionals to nitpick it to death. Sometimes a novelist can do a better job of telling a story than a historian can." When he chose to do so, Dr. Walz could also produce narrowly focused and carefully footnoted studies. He made two signal additions to knowledge of the Arkansas past with articles in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, one on slaves and slaveholders in the state in the 1850s, and another on nineteenth century migration into Arkansas. He also wrote articles on contemporary as well as historical Arkansas topics for such publications as the Encyclopedia of Southern History and the Encyclopedia Americana..
Beginning in 1968, Dr. Walz devoted himself to collecting and preserving the photographic history of Arkansas, especially of its southwestern counties. He became an expert at copying old photographs and would carry his equipment almost anywhere in order to add more negatives to an already sizeable collection. He created a photographic archive showing how common people lived, worked, and played. Parts of the collection were exhibited locally and across the state on many occasions. Over two hundred photos copied by Dr. Walz were featured in the 1980 film His Arkansas Land: A Living History. The Arkansas Endowment for the Humanities generously supported his work and in recognition of its importance named him its first Humanist of the Year in 1979.
Throughout his career, Dr. Walz worked with many organizations to support the study of Arkansas history. He was elected to the board of directors of the Arkansas Historical Association first in 1962 and served continuously until 1980. He was chosen president of the association for 1968-1969 and again for 1969-1970. He was a charter member of the executive board of the Southwest Regional Archives at Old Washington, Arkansas. He traveled widely and often to meetings of local historical and genealogical societies to encourage their activities.
To recognize Dr. Walz's special contribution to Arkansas history, the Arkansas Historical Association in 1987 presented him its Distinguished Service Award. But Dr. Walz, who was utterly without pomposity, never stood on his honors. Asked in a campus newspaper interview for advice to students, he told them to pursue what they most cared about, as he had chosen to study history. With characteristic pungency, he concluded: "I don't have many worldly goods, and I may be insignificant, but I've always managed to get paid to do something I love."
Dr. Walz died February 4, 1988.
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