Dr. Walter Ball, retired from the NIU school of art, died Jan. 3 at the DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center. He was 74.

Walter earned a bachelor of arts degree from Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan.; a master of fine arts degree from the University of Wichita in Wichita, Kan.; and a doctorate from the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Walter joined the faculty at NIU in 1968 where he taught painting and drawing in the department of visual and performing arts until his retirement in 1996.

“He was a relatively quiet individual, but very intelligent and could speak very well about his concept of art,” said Dr. Jerry Meyer, former assistant art department chair. “If you knew him, you would know he had a wonderful, dry sense of humor.”

At the time he entered NIU, Walter was one of only two professors who held a doctorate of fine arts, Meyer said.

“His degree was very rare,” Meyer said. “For only a few years, Ohio State was the only institution in the country to offer a doctorate in painting and drawing.”

Walter was hired to strengthen the graduate program in art and was remembered as being demanding, but patient with students, Meyer said.

His wife, Corintha Ball, remembers him as being a steadfast friend.

“He took great pleasure in seeing his students succeed in the visual arts,” Ball said. “He had a great sense of dedication to whatever he did.”

Ball had a particular approach to painting in his aspects of color.

“He would deal with color in a semi-abstract form and didn’t paint in a realistic manner; he would take an abstract of nature like a person or a still life and have carefully rendered color, form and line,” Meyers said.

Walter suffered a stroke in the fall of 2002 and one year later found out he had inoperable cancer. He also suffered two falls, one in which he broke his hip and never returned home from the Rehab & Nursing center.

Walter’s other interests included space science, carpentry and gardening, Ball said.