Dick Stahl papers

Richard “Dick” Hugo Stahl was an Augustana College alumnus (Class of 1963), a high school teacher, and a poet. At Augustana College, he was a member of Akros, a men’s freshman honor society founded in 1960. He also participated in the Writer’s Club, and his poems appeared in the 1962 edition of SAGA, the college’s literary magazine. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Augustana College and later completed a Master of Arts in English from The University of Iowa in 1970. In 1981, he also completed an education specialist degree (Ed.S.) with Western Illinois University.

A native of Davenport, Iowa, Stahl taught English at Davenport Central High School, his alma mater, until his retirement. He served as the first Poet Laureate of the Quad Cities from 2001 to 2003, a post created by the local arts agency, Quad City Arts. As Quad City Poet Laureate (an otherwise honorary title) Stahl was required to give public readings in three different Iowa counties: Scott, Clinton, and Muscatine; and three different Illinois counties: Rock Island, Mercer, and Henry. Stahl published several volumes of poetry, including After the Milk Route (1988), Under the Green Tree Hotel (1996), Mr. Farnam's Guests (2004), Bluffing (2016), and My Cancer Chronicle: Poems (2022).

He died on February 19, 2020, and is survived by his wife, Helen Stahl (Class of 1964), who co-created one of the scrapbooks in the collection with him. The collection also includes various notes from Helen Stahl.