Gary Hausladen

Gary Hausladen, long-time professor of geography at University of Nevada, Reno, died on April 8, 2013, at the age of 66. During his more than 25 years at the university, he was respected and honored by all. His awards include the university’s Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award, College of Arts & Sciences and the Tibbitts Distinguished Teacher Award, the university system’s Regents’ Teaching Award. He also received CASE’s Nevada Professor of the Year for Excellence in Teaching, National Council for Geographic Education’s Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award and the Wilbur S. Shepperson Humanities Book Award for Western Places, American Myths: How We Think About the West.

Hasladen earned his Ph.D. in 1983 and M.A. in 1979 in geography from Syracuse University and received his B.A. in 1969 in political science from Stanford University. After attending Stanford, he joined the Air Force and served as a C130 pilot in Vietnam and Cambodia. During his military service, he became fluent in Russian and later traveled to Moscow as a Fulbright Scholar.

Before settling down at the U. of Nevada, Reno, he taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and at Southwest Texas State University. During his time in Nevada, he established and served as the director of the Geography Alliance in Nevada (GAIN) to support teachers in building solid foundations in geography for students in grades K-12.

He was married to his wife Marilyn for 46 years and had three children.