CU-Boulder Professors Patricia Nelson Limerick and Charles Wilkinson will celebrate the life of the late environmental writer T.H. Watkins in a special event on Monday, Jan. 29.
Watkins, who died last year, will be honored with the 1999 Wallace Stegner Award from the CU-Boulder Center of the American West, which Limerick and Wilkinson co-founded. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Eaton Humanities Building, room 150 on the CU-Boulder campus.
The event is free and open to the public.
A writer and activist, Watkins served as the editor of Wilderness, the magazine of the Wilderness Society, from 1982 until it was discontinued in 1996. He also was a former editor of American West magazine, a senior editor at American Heritage magazine and a contributing editor of Audubon magazine. In 1997, he became the first Wallace Stegner Distinguished Professor of Western American Studies at Montana State University.
Watkins wrote more than 300 articles and book reviews for journals, magazines and newspapers including National Geographic, Smithsonian, the New York Times and Washington Post. He was an adviser and featured commentator in Ken Burns' 1996 documentary for the Public Broadcasting Service, "The West."
He was the author of several books on the Depression and a biography on the New Deal's Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, for which he is perhaps best known. His most recent book, "The Redrock Chronicles," played a significant role in the campaign for wilderness preservation in southern Utah. At the time of his death, he was at work on a biography of Wallace Stegner.
In 1999, the Center of the American West chose Watkins as the recipient of its annual Wallace Stegner Award, given to a person with exemplary achievements in expressing the values of the West. But he was not able to come to Boulder for the traditional Stegner Award interview and discussion due to illness.
On Jan. 29, the center will make its best effort to convey the power of Watkins' commitments and spirit to people who already know and value his work as well as those who are just discovering his achievements.
Joining historian Limerick and law Professor Wilkinson will be Tom Barron, author and board member of the Wilderness Society, and Steve Binder, center board member and managing director of First Union Securities.
For more information call the CU-Boulder Center of the American West at (303) 492-4879 or visit the Web site at .