Roy Bedichek (June 27, 1878 – May 21, 1959) was a

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, naturalist, and educator.

Biography

Early life and education

Roy Bedichek was born on June 27, 1878 in

Cass County, Illinois Cass County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 13,642. Its county seat is Virginia. It is the home of the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area. History ...

to parents James Madison Bedichek and Lucretia Ellen Craven. The family relocated to

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in 1884. Bedichek attended country schools and the Bedichek Academy, founded by his father in

Eddy, Texas Bruceville-Eddy is a city in McLennan and Falls Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Its population was 1,413 at the 2020 census. Most of the city is in McLennan County and is part of the Waco metropolitan statistical area. A small southern por ...

. He enrolled at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

in February 1898. He received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in 1903. Later in 1925, after returning as an employee of the University system, he earned his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

Employment

His first job after college was as a reporter for the ''Fort Worth Record''. Soon after, he was a high school teacher, first in Houston, Texas and then in

San Angelo, Texas San Angelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. Its location is in the Concho Valley, a region of West Texas between the Permian Basin to the northwest, Chihuahuan Desert to the southwest, Osage Plai ...

. Next, he worked as the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in Deming, New Mexico. While in Deming, he was the Editor of the

Deming Headlight The Deming Headlight is a newspaper in Deming, New Mexico, United States. It was founded by J.E. Curren with its first edition published June 25, 1881.Library of Congress, ''About Deming Headlight (Deming, N.M.) 1881-1948'/ref>William Gillet Ritc ...

. By 1913, Bedichek had returned to Austin and became the secretary of the Young Men's Business League, which later was merged with the chamber of commerce. Subsequently, he was executive secretary of the Organization for Promoting Interest in Higher Education in Texas. Then, he served as city editor of the

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. Finally, in the fall of 1917, he began work in Austin with the

University Interscholastic League The University Interscholastic League (UIL) is an organization that creates rules for and administers almost all athletic, musical, and academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest organi ...

(UIL), which was then a part of the University of Texas Extension Bureau. He became the second Director of the league in 1922. He retired from this position in 1948.

Writing

At the urging of his friends,

Walter Prescott Webb Walter Prescott Webb (April 3, 1888 in Panola County, Texas – March 8, 1963 near Austin, Texas) was an American historian noted for his groundbreaking work on the American West. As president of the Texas State Historical Association, he la ...

and J. Frank Dobie, he took a leave of absence in February 1946 to write his first book, ''Adventures with a Texas Naturalist''. His second book and third books were awarded the Carr P. Collins Award for the best Texas book of the day by the

Texas Institute of Letters The Texas Institute of Letters is a non-profit Honor Society founded by William Harvey Vann in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most respe ...

(TIL).Awards, Texas Institute of Letters
(PDF) His last book was released posthumously.

Friends

While his friends J. Frank Dobie and Walter Prescott Webb are more renowned outside of Austin, in the community all three are respected equally. In the late 1960s to the early 1970s, the

Austin Independent School District Austin Independent School District (AISD) is a school district based in the city of Austin, Texas, United States. Established in 1881, the district serves most of the City of Austin and surrounding towns, the City of Sunset Valley, the Village ...

opened Middle Schools (then known as Junior Highs) named after all three men. Also, in 1994 a sculpture, known as Philosopher's Rock, portraying Roy Bedichek, J. Frank Dobie and Walter Prescott Webb was installed at Barton Springs Pool in Austin. The sculpture was fashioned in honor of their promotion of the preservation of Barton Springs.

Media

*A documentary, ''Roy Bedichek's Vanishing Frontier,'' written, produced and directed by Rob Tranchin was shown nationally on PBS in April 2003. *A one-act play by Steve Moore, ''Nightswim,'' about Bedichek, Dobie and Webb was first produced in Austin in Fall, 2004.XL , Reviews , 'Nightswim,' Conspirare & more – Oct. 14, 2004
/ref>

Bibliography

* * ''Awarded outstanding Texas book of the year by TIL'' * ''Awarded outstanding Texas book of the year by TIL'' *