Former UW-Madison geography and soil sciences professor Francis Hole, who is credited for launching a campaign to declare Antigo silt loam as Wisconsin's official state soil, died Jan. 15 at age 88.
Hole, according to a UW-Madison news release, was one of the university's most popular former teachers and was an often sought after guest lecturer. He was widely known for his battered violin, soil auger and suitcase full of puppets which he used to perform soil songs, soil poems and puppet plays about the earth beneath our feet.
\Soil is the hidden, secret friend, which is the root domain of lively darkness and silence,"" Hole once wrote. ""My goal in promoting popularization of the soil resource is not so much to attract young people to careers in soil science as to give all children and their parents and grandparents a chance to enjoy the soils of their native landscape.""
Born Aug. 25, 1913 in Muncie, Ind., Hole received a bachelor's degree in geology and biology from Earlham College in 1934 before earning a doctorate in soil science and geography from UW-Madison in 1943.
Hole joined the UW-Madison faculty in 1946, and received the university's distinguished teaching award in 1974. He retired in 1983.
