Arthur Louis Buikema Jr.

Arthur Louis Buikema Jr., Alumni Distinguished Professor of Ecology Emeritus passed away on June 10, 2026. Art was preceded in death by his parents, Arthur Louis Sr. and Jessie Marion (nee Ebbens), brothers John Andrew and Robert George, and sons Andrew Carl and Arthur Louis III (“Trey”), He is survived by this wife, Mary Alison Galway and children: Ami Lynne (Pearse), Jill Catherine (Aukofer), Jane Kimberly, Eric Thorsen, Matthew Lewis, Sarah Carolyn (Kerr), Rachel Marion (Friend), David Thorsen and Jessie Elizabeth, and 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Art was raised on a hog and grain farm south of Chicago by parents who were children of Dutch truck farmers. At age 9, he was sitting with a grade school counselor and his mother who was told that Art would never amount to much. He did not realize that he was dyslexic until his mid 50s when he was having a child evaluated. Nor did he ever forget the 6th grade math teacher who announced to the other students that he was the dumbest person in the class. His aunts on his mother’s side nicknamed him “professor“ because he always had his head in a book. He worked summers with his father running heavy construction equipment; this job paid for his college education. A new pastor at the country church his family belonged to, convinced his father that Art should go to college. Art argued against it but he finally relented and when he got to Elmhurst College, he loved the challenge and continued to enjoy learning his entire life. Fortunately he had several great role models who mentored this country kid along the way. Ultimately, he got a MA and PhD in Ecology from the University of Kansas under the tutelage of Dr. Kenneth B. Armitage. Art cringed when students attempted to pronounce his Dutch name. To make it easier he told them that he could be called Mr. B, Dr. B or anything that was not derogatory. He believed in his students and he believed that course content should not be taught in a black box; rather students should also learn how courses interact with each other. He was not afraid to cross disciplinary boundaries. At his first position at St. Olaf College (1967-1971), his freshman students designed their own experiments and he told the students not to buy a textbook, that he would teach them the biology. Rather he provided students reading material on the ecological effects of war, creationism versus evolution, Antony and Cleopatra, and Ape and Essence to name a few. Dr. John Cairns, a professor for whom he was a GTA in graduate school, invited him to apply for a job at Virginia Tech (1971 to 2015). There he mostly taught Principles of Biology, Ecology and Honors Biology; in the latter course, he integrated many different subjects into the class challenging students to express their ideas with art, poetry, music, dance, technology, etc. His favorite movie was Dead Poets Society which verified that there are other valid ways to teach. Art received some 13 local and national teaching awards and was inducted into the Virginia Tech Academy of Teaching Excellence three times. One of the early teaching awards that he was most proud of was the G. Burke Johnston “Renaissance Man” Award at Virginia Tech. Prior to retirement he was also inducted into the Academy of Faculty Service for service to the undergraduate honor court and various local and national student award committees, etc. To be sure, there were those who thought that they were cheated if Art won another award and a few made a point to tell him that. For those, he forgives them. He loved to use puns to see if his students were awake. His family suggested that he contribute $1 to a bad joke jar every time he told one and they figured that with the funds the family could go overseas every year. A few of his children and grandchildren have carried on this tradition of puns. In addition to biology, he also held adjunct professorships in Landscape Architecture and Human Development. For the former he served as an ecologist on applied projects protecting ecological resources. In the latter department, he designed and taught the first Addictions and Family course at Virginia Tech, a course based on personal experience. He taught this course for over 25 years. During this time he studied at the Rutgers summer school on drug and alcohol studies, the Johnson Institute and volunteered at New Life Recovery Center, the Montgomery County jail and the RAFT Crisis Center. He met many friends of Bill W who graciously allowed his students to attend their open meetings. Thanks to the encouragement of Dr. Jack Dudley, Art also taught or co-taught various honors colloquia including ‘What it means to be a Man in American Culture,’ ‘Science and the Family,’ and educating the general population by Designing Science Museum Exhibits, a course co-taught with Provost Dr. Mark McNamee. He loved teaching in the field and over the years, he taught in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Everglades National Park, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and South Africa. He believed that to understand the local ecology his students also needed to learn how indigenous peoples interacted with their environment. In 2001-2002 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar and helped develop and teach a new curriculum in environmental education at the emergent National University of Science and Technology located in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He went on to chair the Fulbright selection committee for sub-Saharan Africa for three years. He loved Africa, the people and the landscape, and threatened to move his family to sub-Saharan Africa but the suggestion got vetoed. Art was on leave for two years to the USEPA, Office of Pesticides, Ecological Effects Branch, in Washington DC as a Senior Scientist, evaluating the toxicity and ecological impacts of pesticides. Art served on several national committees dealing with the design of toxicity test procedures to evaluate the impacts of effluents and new chemicals on ecological systems. He was the summary speaker at the first public hearings on the Valdez oil spill in Anchorage, Alaska. Most memorable, he worked with statistician Dr. Jeffery Birch and proved to the USEPA that their suggested original methodology to predict biologically safe concentrations of heavy metals in fresh water was fraught with error; many of their predictions were within + 300 to 400 % error. Art simply enjoyed new challenges. He enjoyed cooking and had a collection of over 350 cookbooks many of which were purchased before the internet came into existence. When he came to Blacksburg, he was disappointed by the lack of good Chinese food so he took Chinese cooking classes and then taught these classes in the YMCA Open University for several years. He still took cooking classes at the Gourmet Pantry. He learned to handle firearms and hunted on the Caprivi Strip in Namibia to provide game meat for local populations (and he got his cape buffalo with one shot). He was also a volunteer instructor for the Virginia Department of Fish and Wildlife. And at the age of 75 he enrolled in watercolor classes taught by Ms. Jesi Pace-Berkeley and had been taking them ever since. He enjoyed sharing time with a daughter and granddaughters who occasionally accompanied him to these watercolor classes. Memorial services will be held at the UUC NRV congregation in Blacksburg in the Fall. The family will receive friends at the McCoy Funeral home on Sunday, June 14, 2026 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Interfaith Food Pantry or the charity of your choice. Art would appreciate that.

Arthur Louis Buikema Jr.

February 4, 1941 - June 10, 2026