Thank you,

Jeff Grinvalds

Dear Colleagues,

I’m sorry to tell you that another of our former colleagues has died. Professor Les Whipp died on Saturday. Les had pancreatic cancer.

As some of you know, Les was a Renaissance scholar, both in terms of his area of specialization and in his wide-ranging interests in scholarship, teaching, poetry, gardening, and fishing. In the mid-1970’s Les led the group that joined with UC-Berkeley in forming the National Writing Project, funded by NEH. As a result of his leadership, our department became one of the original sites of the NWP. Les saw the NWP model’s potential for K-16 teacher development in teaching literature and the humanities more broadly. As a result he pursuaded his colleagues, including Jim McShane, Bob Bergstrom, Bob Haller, Steve Hilliard and others to develop Nebraska Literature Workshops, Nebraska Humanities Workshops, and NWP workshops for college teachers.

Les retired in 1998 and moved to Washington State.

I’ll keep you informed about memorials or other arrangements.
Joy Richie, Department Chair