December 6, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ray Ladd
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
(805)756-7432
rladd@calpoy.edu
Endowment Established in Memory of
Cal Poly Landscape Architecture Professor Walter Tryon
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Beloved colleague and longtime Cal Poly landscape architecture Professor Walt Tryon passed away at his home Oct. 25, 2005.
A ceremony celebrating his life was held on campus Oct. 30. To honor his memory, an endowment is being established in his name. His many friends, colleagues and Cal Poly alumni are invited to help reach a goal of $50,000. Funds should be made payable to the Cal Poly Foundation “in memory of Walt Tryon” and sent to the Landscape Architecture Department, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407-0285. For further details, contact the department at 756-1319.
Tryon’s holistic teaching style, caring attitude, world perspective and genuine friendship influenced many students and colleagues in his almost 30 years of teaching at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. He taught the full range of courses offered in the Landscape Architecture Department and was very active in the local community. His efforts greatly contributed to the department’s “Best in the West” ranking by DesignIntelligence.
He was born Dec. 4, 1941, the son of Harriet DeFriest Tryon and Matthew Koonz Tryon, in Albany, N.Y. Among his favorite childhood memories were growing up in a small Dutch community in upstate New York and attending a four-room schoolhouse. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and spent many years hiking and camping in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains.
Tryon earned Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degrees from the State University of New York at Syracuse in 1964. While employed as a landscape architect, he continued his post-baccalaureate education at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of North Carolina and University of Maryland before earning a Master of Landscape Architecture degree at Syracuse University in 1974, where he served as a faculty member from 1970-1976.
He served in the U.S. Coast Guard aboard the USS West Wind in the North Atlantic during the Vietnam War.
A member of the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society of International Scholars and the Sigma Lambda Alpha National Honor Society of Landscape Architects, Tryon received the Outstanding Educator Award of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He believed that the most fulfilling aspect of his life was the achievements of his former students.
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