Author Archive
The Monkey Prince
In 1996, as part of a Feature Writing class I took to fill my journalism minor, I drove to Mobile, Alabama and interviewed a local legend named Eugene Walter. Eugene was one of the most fascinating personalities I’ve ever talked to — certainly he was the person who’d accomplished the most, or at least the most varied. The article he inspired helped me get an A in that class.
Eugene passed away less than two years after I wrote this article. I’m very glad I got the chance to spend a couple of hours with him that warm November afternoon. Eugene lived more fully and more authentically than most of us ever do, and I think there’s still much I can learn from his attitudes toward life.
(Don’t judge the writing too harshly — this was fifteen years ago!)
