Austin College retiree Karl Haller died April 15, 2022. He was 105.
Karl retired as a career officer in the U.S. Air Force before beginning a teaching career at Austin College.
No funeral service is planned. Friends may sign the guestbook at American Funeral Service.
Haller spent more than 33 years in Austin College biology classrooms and labs, serving as a member of the adjunct faculty and staff from September 1, 1965, until his retirement on May 31, 1998. He served as an instructor in biology and taxidermy, a biology preparator and curator, and a stockroom/laboratory coordinator.
Colleague Wayne Meyer of today’s biology faculty, says Haller was best known for his love of birds and was responsible for twice-a-week bird censuses at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Meyer said Haller started a data set of birds found on the refuge that is still “being added to today by several of his ornithological disciples.” Meyer explained that the data set is now part of the e-bird data set curated by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
Meyer said a trail at the refuge is named for Karl, who contributed time, treasure, and talents to many programs at the refuge. In 2013 when Haller was 97, an NPR reporter traveled to Hagerman with him and Meyer. They met some of the local birders who have met there with Haller for more than 30 years. Haller told the reporter he had been chronicling the life of birds since he was a young boy in West Virginia in the early 1920s. Purple Martins got him started. In 1939, he even discovered a new species of warbler.
During the interview, the reporter asked Karl if he intended to keep birding. “As long as I can,” was the reply. … That, we can be assured, he did.