Marv Welt

In his retirement, Marv Welt has turned his lifetime passion for fishing into an environmental education program operating in nine low-income Portland, Ore., public schools.

Photo: Alex Harris

"When I retired, I was ready to stop working. I had been successful, but a lot of things were getting to me. In consulting, it's nothing to work 14- or even 16-hour days. The pressure is terrible. You're dealing with millions of dollars, and the company expects you to pay for yourself on the bottom line. I was away five days a week, sometimes more. I missed out on raising my own kids.

"But after being retired a while, I started getting itchy. I didn't want to just sit. That's when a friend of mine with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said, 'Hey, you've done a lot of fishing all your life. There's an Angler Education Program, and we'd like you to be involved.' That's really where it started. I started teaching kids living in housing projects how to fish. I'd take them on fishing trips, and I noticed that some kids were in awe of the outdoors, but others were afraid of it, or had no understanding of nature.

"I enjoyed the kids and the fishing. Really, anything to do with water or marine biology is my hobby. It always has been. My happiest times growing up were going with my aunt and grandmother to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. I would fish and swim, and I'd walk alone at night, coming back along the lakes. I'd see deer. I'd see raccoons. And I would see things in the water, things I knew weren't fish. And I was fascinated. What were they? That's how my interest started to evolve. It was an escape from the city to learn about these different things.

"After being involved in the Angler Education Program for a while, I thought, 'This has been my hobby all my life. Why don't I do something other than just take kids fishing and then drop them?' Which is what I was essentially doing. The kids would ask, 'Isn't Marv ever coming back?' And that bothered me, so I started thinking, 'What can I do that is more ongoing?'

"I decided to go back to school, to Portland State, and started taking courses – entomology, aquaculture – so that I knew more, and that I could do something more. Portland State's got a great deal. If you're a 'senior citizen,' you can go for free. You don't get credits, but I didn't care about credits; I wanted the knowledge! I took a lot of science, but also other courses I had missed when I was in school. The French novel and Greek mythology, modern poetry, even drama. It was great. I didn't have to submit papers if I didn't want to. I didn't have to worry about grades. I could just go for the fun of it. And I enjoyed being around college kids. I think a lot of them were really surprised at how much we had in common.

"By the time I finished at Portland State, the Watershed Program was ready, and the first place I tried it was Portsmouth Elementary School. Somebody gave me the name of the science teacher there. I knew Whitaker Pond, which wasn't too far from the school, and I knew its water drains into the slough. So I started taking groups of kids from Portsmouth School on field trips to Whitaker.

"Here was a resource right at their doorstep that the kids were not aware of. The Smith and Bivey Lakes are there too, in the same area. Smith Lake has the largest collection of the Western Painted Turtle of any place in the country. Everything is just right for them there, and they've multiplied.

"Over time, the word spread, and the program started growing. At one point my son said, 'What about teaching the children about water testing?' So I got some kits and I'd say to kids, 'Why would we want to test the water? Can fish live in orange juice or battery acid?' I taught them how to use the kits and to test the acidity of the water. But I kept asking them: 'Why do we want to know about this? Did you know fish need oxygen, and the water's got oxygen in it?' Kids don't know that. It's a little introduction to ichthyology and to some of the other sciences, and teachers seem to like the program because it helps build vocabulary. It also teaches kids about the life cycle, especially when we're learning about salmon.

"It's great to see the kids respond. Sometimes I think I could run for mayor if they could vote! Why wouldn't they respond? They have fun. Now I'm not saying everyone, some of them are afraid of the outdoors. Some figure when they're not in the classroom, it's a holiday. Some are also angry kids. But I can relate pretty well to them because I was an angry kid myself.

Order Now >

"In fact, when I retired I remember thinking back and feeling, 'Don't I owe something?' And I felt I did. I felt I owed it to Mr. Riggs, but mainly I think I owed it to myself. Not to sit down, start watching television, drinking beer. That's what my neighbor did, and he was dead within two years. I worried that would happen to me, too, that I'd just sort of waste away. I knew I had to keep active. Then it was a question of what do I have to give.

"There are some selfish reasons, too. The things I love, whether it's the Painted Turtle or the clean water, whatever it is, these kids are going to decide what happens to our environment. Faster than the blink of an eye. I can't believe how fast the years have gone by since I was 40. How fast it happened. Here I am, an old man. [laughs]

"When the program expanded beyond the slough, I changed its name from Watershed to Waterworld. I got into the rivers, asking kids: 'What is a river used for? What kind of fish are in the river? What do these fish need?' All these questions. Then it led to the estuaries, and to the sea. And of course this tied right in with salmon because the fry turn into par and they live for a year in the river before they go to sea. And I started talking to them about the wetlands: 'What purpose do they serve? What is a flood plain? What happens if water comes to a wetland? Suppose you pave it over?'

"I ask a lot of questions and let them give me crazy answers. But mostly, they come through. You can't sell these kids short. You just lay the foundation and then, layer by layer, they figure things out. I think sometimes we tend to not challenge children enough.

"I'm always pushing them, and when you have a rapport going between you and the class, and a few students start to get into it and the interest builds and suddenly the whole class is with you, it's very exciting. To be involved in something that is real and important when they're getting it and they're having fun doing it and you're having fun doing it, it's like a symphony coming together in the end. It builds into something very moving.

"In fact, I enjoy teaching the kids so much I have regrets. It seems so natural. Maybe I should have gone into teaching. Maybe I would have had a much happier life. Probably not financially, but overall. I think I would have had a much more fulfilling life. But, you know how you change over the years. If somebody would have said to me when I was in college, 'Why don't you major in education?' I would have looked at them like they were crazy.

"Before I retired I had no idea I would be doing any of this. I was too involved in what I was doing to be thinking about what's next. But it gives a purpose to life that I think everybody needs. Sitting out in your RV contemplating your navel is, to me, a total waste. What are you doing? Taking up space. You've got to give something of yourself, and I don't just mean paying your taxes. You've got to give something of what you can do.

"I have one friend, he has terrible asthma, but he delivers food every Thursday, brings food to people in their house through Meals On Wheels. This is what he likes to do. And he is contributing something. It gives him a reason to get up in the morning, and he feels better about himself. It is a strain on him. We used to take walks by Smith and Bybee Lakes, but he can't do that anymore. He couldn't walk from here to the corner. But he manages to deliver meals by car. He is doing what he is capable of doing.

"If everybody could just do that – just give a little bit – what a difference it would make."