Walker D. Wyman was born in rural Vermillion County, near Danville, Illinois, on December 7, 1907. He received his B.Ed. degree from Illinois State Normal University in 1929. After attending the summer session of the University of Chicago in 1929, he accepted a position as instructor in social science and debate for the school year, 1929-1930, at the Dwight, Illinois, High School.
Wyman continued graduate work at the State University of Iowa, receiving his M.A. degree in 1931, and his Ph.D. in 1935. He was a teaching assistant at Iowa, 1931-1932. In 1932, he accepted a position as assistant professor in the Social Science Department, River Falls State Teachers College, River Falls, Wisconsin.
After he received his Ph.D., Wyman was appointed an associate professor in 1935. A full professorship followed, and, in 1942, he was made chairman of the Department of Social Sciences, with responsibility for the teaching of geography, history, political science, economics, and sociology. When a program of graduate studies was instituted at River Falls in 1959, Wyman became Director.
He also served as visiting professor of history during summer sessions at the universities of Minnesota, Maine, and Wisconsin, in addition to directing summer sessions at River Falls for several years.
In July 1962, Wyman accepted the position of President of Wisconsin State College at Whitewater.
Wyman was a prolific writer. In addition to his own books: The Wild Horse of the West (3rd printing, 1945); California Emigrant Letters (1952); Nothing But Prairie and Sky (1954); and grade and high school history texts, he co-authored A Topical Guide to the Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1934), and co-edited The Frontier in Perspective (1954). He also published more than a score of articles and over a hundred book reviews in various journals of history--national, regional, and state.
Walker Wyman married Helen Bryant of Colorado in 1930. They had two children: Bryant and Mark.
Walker died on March 29, 1999, in Green Valley, Arizona.
