Leon Yacher: Scholar, Mentor, and Eclectic Geographer.

As Kenzer (2001) has noted, “unlike practitioners in other academic fields, when it comes to the intellectual history of our discipline, geographers love to dabble.” However, examining this dabbling has normally been restricted to examining the contributions of faculty in Ph.D.-granting departments. Indeed, our discipline’s history is rich, but written accounts are incomplete, for the voices of geographers serving in undergraduate programs at colleges and universities of little prestige have for the most part been silent. These programs are housed in institutions that are home to the vast majority of academic geographers, many of whom toil relentlessly in the trenches of academe, teaching large classes of often underprepared undergraduates, mentoring promising students, performing considerable institutional committee work, and engaging in research. They are the backbone of American geography. Leon Yacher is one of them, and this is his story. Hopefully, this piece will spark others to write about mentors and colleagues, creating a more complete history of the geographic discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]