Bill Hamilton had “boundless curiosity,” whether the subject was music, literature, nature, politics, fishing or birdwatching, said his wife, Margaret Hamilton.
Hamilton, 69, who died July 5, had books on everything. They lined the walls of most rooms in his house and even the hallways, said Phyllis Evans of Fort Worth, a former student of Hamilton’s.
“He knew a lot about a lot of things,” said a longtime friend and fishing buddy, Tom Krol, who lives near Conifer. About the only subject he didn’t pursue was team sports, Krol said.
“He was a bookish man who combined a life of the mind with a deep, deep engagement with nature,” said Brad Manier of Brooklyn, N.Y., a Hamilton student at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.
Hamilton, professor emeritus of literature at Metro State College, collapsed July 1 with a heart attack in a motel room in Lander, Wyo., after a fishing trip in Montana. He was flown to a Casper hospital, where he died.
Manier said Hamilton “was a true teacher because he created a conversation instead of just giving facts and figures.”
“He was a brilliant, inspiring and demanding teacher. There was nothing ivory tower about him. He was genuine and grounded,” said former student Bob Boltz of Columbus, Ohio.
Hamilton loved to fish but was “never a particularly good fisherman” because his cast wasn’t good and his line often tangled, said Randy Teeuwen, a fishing friend from Denver. Still, Hamilton liked the experience and the idea of being outside, often releasing what he caught.
He was just as passionate about gardening and birdwatching, even making a trip to Costa Rica to watch birds.
He was an activist in the Democratic Party, dating to 1968, when Eugene McCarthy ran for president. Last November, Hamilton helped make tuna sandwiches for Obama campaign workers.
William T. Hamilton was born Sept. 6, 1939, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
He married Margaret Mims on Dec. 22, 1959.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Washington, a master’s in English from the University of Maryland and his doctorate from the University of Minnesota. He was a specialist in the work of William Faulkner and Mark Twain and had seen the Hal Holbrook one-man show about Twain “four or five times,” his wife said.
He came to Colorado to be vice president of academic affairs at Western State College in Gunnison. From 1987 until 1990 he was president of Western State. When he retired in 2005, he was chairman of the English department at Metropolitan State College of Denver.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters: Jenny Hamilton of Columbus, Ohio, and Amy Hamilton of Res ton, Va.; two grandchildren; and his sister, Diana Hamilton Brumby of Rhinebeck, N.Y. His daughter Ann Hamilton Swanson died of leukemia in 1995.
