Travels by Don Welch

KEARNEY, Neb. — Nebraska poet and retired University of Nebraska at Kearney English professor Don Welch was a beloved FLP author.

“Don Welch was a Nebraska icon who inspired countless students and readers of his poetry to master the English language and to eloquently and creatively express themselves,” UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen said. “He was a prominent figure at UNK for decades.”

“It is difficult to imagine UNK without him. We salute him for a career and life well-lived and express our sympathy to his loved ones. We will miss you, Dr. Welch,” Kristensen added.

That sentiment was echoed by Ruth Behlmann, an office associate in the UNK English Department and a photographer who collaborated with Welch to produce three sets of poem cards.

Behlmann said it was a privilege to work with Welch.

“He was just a jewel. … We will never have another poet like him at UNK,” she said.

Welch was the first Reynolds Chair in Poetry, from 1987-1997, at UNK and held the Martin Chair of English. He was an English professor from 1959-1997, but his ties to the campus go back to his student days at then-Kearney State College, from which he received a bachelor of arts degree with majors in business and English, and a minor in French.

Welch earned a master of arts degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a doctorate in American literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In 1988, Welch received the Pratt-Heins Award for teaching, and in 1990, he received the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State Colleges Outstanding Teaching Award.

Although he officially retired from the English Department in 1997, he continued to teach in the UNK Department of Philosophy until 2008.

Behlmann said Welch continued to be the most recognized across-campus walker and had maintained his routine of writing a poem a day. English Department faculty and staff saw him regularly because they maintained an active in-box for Welch.

In a Nov. 19, 2015, Kearney Hub article, Welch talked about the relationship between walking and writing.

“I’m simply inclined to write. It’s like walking. You put one foot in front of the other, then another step, and pretty soon you’ve found that you completed a block of walking,” he said. “Well, that’s the way it is with one word right after another.”

Welch said he encouraged his students to just start something and see where it goes. “You discover things you don’t know by simply putting one word after another,” he said.

Welch published 18 books of poetry. More than 300 of his poems have appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies throughout the United States, and examples of his work have been included in many anthologies.

In 1980, he won the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry.

Welch also served for 13 years as a Nebraska Arts Council Poet-In-Residence in the Nebraska Public Schools program, “Poets-in-the-Schools,” and was a consultant and participant in the Nebraska Public Television documentary “Last of the One-Room Schools,” which was televised in September 1995.

His composition handbook, “A Shape a Writer Can Contain,” was published by the Nebraska Department of Education in 1979. The Nebraska Center for the Book declared Welch’s “Morning: Last Poems” as the 2015 winner of the best book of poetry.

Welch was appointed in November 1997 to the Kearney Public School Board to fill a vacancy left by David Keefauver’s resignation.

“Serving Kearney Public Schools is really what I want to do,” Welch said at the time, “primarily because Kearney Public Schools has been so good to the six Welch children.” He did not seek election in 2000.

Born in Hastings, Welch spent his early years in Gothenburg and Columbus and graduated from Kearney High School. He started his career by teaching English in Fort Morgan, Colo., Gothenburg and Hastings College.

As the Reynolds Chair, Welch had more time for writing. His collections include “Deadhorse Table,” “Handwork,” “The Rarer Game,” “The Keeper of Miniature Deer” and “The Marginalist.”

Welch also collaborated on projects with Behlmann and other artists.

Behlmann said their first sets of poem cards came out in 2013 and 2015. Welch had completed five new poems, and she planned to take the related photos over the summer.

Behlmann said she still had images to complete for poems about coneflowers and two horses when she learned of Welch’s failing health. She grabbed her camera, went to work and had color copy images to show Welch on July 18.

“We got them (the poem cards) done and went back to see him the next week and he was so pleased,” Behlmann said. “He started reciting the two horses poem from memory.”

Another thing about Welch that remained true for most of his life was his passion for racing pigeons.

“He still had those darn pigeons,” Behlmann said. “He would stop in and say he had taken them down to Kansas, and they beat him home to Kearney.”