Dr. Walter Fisher

by Kathleen Hedges

SOCORRO, N.M., May 13, 2000 -- The New Mexico Tech Alumni Association presented its Distinguished Achievement Award to Dr. Walter W. Fisher, a professor of materials and metallurgical engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The award was presented during New Mexico Tech's commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 10, at the state-supported research university.

Fisher was presented his award for developing programs to improve retention at UTEP's College of Engineering.

"Like most large universities, we are concerned about our dropout rate," Fisher said. "I helped to develop the Entering Students Program in the College of Engineering, to help students better prepare to go into engineering disciplines. I've been working on the program since 1989, and it was implemented fully in 1998. Preliminary results are very encouraging."

Fisher described how the program works: "UTEP is a commuter university, where students don't create their own networks of friends to study with. The Entering Students Program groups 25 students together in all the same classes, a technique called clustering, to create learning communities among these clusters of students."

Fisher credits his experiences at New Mexico Tech as an influence on his educational philosophy. "We were one big learning community," he says, and he wanted to encourage that atmosphere at our sister school.

He explains, "New Mexico Tech was a good place to go to graduate school. The program was interdisciplinary, and I was exposed to all different technical areas. At that time, all graduate students, regardless of major, participated in one graduate seminar. We were one big learning community, and we helped each other. I know that atmosphere still exists, because my daughter, Pamela, was a student at New Mexico Tech in the early 1990s, and it existed for her." Pamela, who earned her bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering in 1993, now works for Intel in Hillsboro, Wash. She is married to a fellow Tech graduate, Andrew Calkins, who got his degree in technical communication in 1992.

Walter Fisher earned both of his graduate degrees at New Mexico Tech: a master's in metallurgical engineering in 1967 and a Ph.D. in chemical metallurgy in 1970. These followed a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Utah, which he received in 1964. He has taught at UTEP since 1978. From 1981 to 1984, he chaired the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, and from 1984 to 1988, he was the university's assistant dean of engineering.

For his work in improving teaching and retention, Dr. Fisher received the 1990 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, which is given to a top professor in the University of Texas system. He has also received UTEP'S 1999 Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence, as well as other teaching awards.

Fisher was born and raised in Roswell, and is a 1959 graduate of Roswell High School. His wife, Vicki, is also a Roswell native. In addition to their daughter, Pamela, they have a son, Michael, who got his degree in psychology and counseling and is a counselor and English teacher at Cathedral High School in El Paso. He is studying for Ph.D. in education.