Walker, Dale L.

Author and editor Dale L. Walker was born in Decatur, Illinois in 1935. He served in the U. S. Navy from 1955 to 1959, and began working as a freelance writer in 1960. He worked as a reporter after graduating from Texas Western College with a degree in journalism in 1962. He served many years as books editor for the El Paso Times, and as books columnist for the Times, El Paso Herald-Post, and Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colorado. Walker began a long career with Texas Western College (later The University of Texas at El Paso) in 1966, where he was the director of the News and Information Office from 1966 to 1993 and director of the Texas Western Press from 1985 to 1993. His memberships include the Texas Institute of Letters, the Authors Guild, and the Western Writers of America, for which he served as president from 1992 to 1994. The Western Writers of America awarded him the Spur Award for Best Western Short Non-Fiction in 1988; the Owen Wister Award in 2000; the Spur Award for Best Western Historical Book for his book, Pacific destiny, in 2001; and the Spur Award for Best Western Short Non-Fiction in 2002. In addition to his literary career, Walker is a major donor of books to The University of Texas at El Paso Library. His gifts include books for the S. L. A. Marshall Military History and the Western Fiction Collections; many first edition and rare books to Special Collections, including books on such specialized subjects as journalism history, the Lewish and Clark Expedition, Victorian England, and Jack London studies; and hundreds of non-fiction historical books for the Library's general collection.