Oscar Soule taught environmental studies at The Evergreen State College since it opened in 1971. His comfort in nature began with summer trips to northern Wisconsin as a youth. His eyes were opened to ecology at Colorado College and his graduate studies in the Sonoran Desert at the University of Arizona made him a scientist. More than a thousand of his students dot the world trying to make it a better place. Oscar retired in June 2004 and continues his special interest of urban ecology.