A fond farewell.

After eleven years, after ninety-nine (could it really be ninety-nine?!) issues, it is hard to imagine SchoolArts without Eldon Katter as editor. Almost as soon as he took the helm, good things began to happen to the magazine. Subscriptions began to rise. Advertising increased. Better-quality articles began to flow in. Although some of this good fortune could be attributed to a strengthening economy, improved educational funding, and the efforts of our own staff, we know that a good deal of it was the direct result of Eldon himself.

Being the editor of SchoolArts is not an easy job. The editor serves many masters--the readership, the authors, the advisory and contributing editors, the publisher and staff, the Davis board of directors--and not one of those masters is accessible on a daily basis. The editor works alone, communicating with the outside world by phone, fax, and e-mail, building issue after issue from raw material that arrives--or, horror of horrors, doesn't arrive--each day. The deadlines are tight, the schedules unrelenting. When Eldon became editor in the spring of 1994, he was virtually unknown to our staff. He'd never been on the advisory board or authored a Davis book; he wasn't a mover and shaker in the NAEA. We quickly found that those kinds of credentials weren't necessary: Eldon took to the editorship like Franz Kline to a can of house paint, like Joseph Cornell to an empty box, like Georgia O'Keeffe to the landscape of New Mexico. It was as if he'd been born to it.

Eldon is a rare blend: an individual with a common touch, an uncommon ability to connect the everyday and the universal, and an unwavering belief in the power of art to change people's lives.

Through his editorials--and many photos, taken all over the world--he has allowed us glimpses of his life, his values, the people nearest to him, and related them sensitively to the struggles and triumphs of art teachers everywhere.

Through his choice of themes and his selection of articles, he has unified many unruly strands in the tapestry that is art education, and woven ninety-nine colorful and dynamic contributions to the field. He has acted as both a respectful steward of SchoolArts' long history and an innovative experimenter, introducing new features and departments he thought might be useful of thought-provoking.

Eldon has journeyed with us through our one hundredth year; through the shock of September 11, 2001; through countless cover decisions, layout debates, subscription promotions, and meetings by conference call. Throughout the journey, he's been a wise counselor, a good listener, a careful thinker, a thoughtful colleague. We will miss him greatly, and we wish him well.

--The staff of SchoolArts magazine