Video directed and written by Chris Wooley. Director of photography: Dick Williams. Produced by the Historical League. Narrated by Pat McMahon. Made possible by a financial grant from Dr. Edward B. Diethrich.
J. Lawrence Walkup, a major innovator of higher education principles, developed the branch campus concept and laid the groundwork for Arizona’s community college system.
Dr. Walkup was born in northern Missouri, in 1914, near the trading center of Chillicothe. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Missouri earning his master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
In 1948, Dr. Walkup joined the faculty of Arizona State College in Flagstaff, serving as division head of education, and by 1950, became dean of the College of Education. Seven years later, the Board of Regents selected him as president of the Flagstaff institution. He was the leading proponent, in 1966, of Arizona State College gaining university status, at which time it was renamed Northern Arizona University.
During Dr. Walkup’s twenty-two year tenure as president, the college budget of $1.8 million and enrollment of one thousand students expanded to $48 million and twelve thousand eight hundred students. His efforts were significant in acquiring new structures for the Flagstaff campus including the South Academic Center and the enclosed sports arena that bears the name Walkup Skydome, in his honor. Under his leadership, the academic program developed from a single-purpose teachers college to a university offering one hundred fifty-two degree specializations. At the time of Dr. Walkup’s retirement in 1979, the plant facility valuation had increased from $8 million to $150 million.
Listed in Who’s Who in America, Dr. Walkup’s leadership role was acknowledged nationally, in 1968, when he was chosen president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. He was also named in Who’s Who in American Colleges and University Administration and awarded both the Faculty-Alumni Gold Medal by the University of Missouri and the Outstanding Alumni Award from Central Missouri State University. In 1979, the Regent’s Medal was given in Dr. Walkup’s honor by the Arizona Board of Regents. Arizona House of Representatives Concurrent Resolution 2030 was unanimously adopted honoring his educational leadership and involvement in activities for the benefit of the community, the state, and the nation.
Dr. Walkup has written six books, including two on Northern Arizona University and two on the Walkup family, tracing their history back 900 years. In addition to his academic and historical interests, he has a thousand acres of farmland in Missouri.
Lawrence Walkup and his wife, Lucy, have one daughter, Susan.
Historymaker J. Lawrence Walkup biography published in 1995
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