Dr. Malcolm L. Comeaux, Professor Emeritus within the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University, leaves behind a profound legacy that forever shaped how we understand the complex relationship between human communities and the natural world. Born in 1938 as a native of southern Louisiana, Dr. Comeaux attended the University of Louisiana-Lafayette for his B.A., Southern Illinois University for his M.A., and Louisiana State University for his Ph.D. Malcolm came to Arizona State University in 1969.
From the early 1970's until his retirement in 2001, Dr. Comeaux taught "Geography of Arizona and the Southwest," "History of Geographic Thought," "Geography of Europe," "Introduction to Cultural and Historical Geography," and "World Regional Geography." For his university teaching, he received Distinguished Teaching Honors by the Association of American Geography in 2002. While a professor at Arizona State University, Dr. Comeaux served on dozens of committees and with numerous organizations including the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science, the American Geographical Society, the National Council for Geographic Education, and Gamma Theta Upsilon Geographical Honor Society. In addition to over 50 published journal articles and book reviews, His seminal works include Atchafalaya Swamp: Settlement and Folk Occupations and Arizona: A Geography. His Arizona Geography book is still available via Kindle.
Professor Comeaux’s fields of study included culture diffusion and culture change, historical geography, geography of Europe, history of geographic thought, geography of Arizona and the Southwest, the French of Louisiana, and geographic education. However, his research interests were also eclectic and included writing scholarly papers on such topics as regional children’s games like marbles and the post-death removal of human remains of Arizona snowbirds.
Dr. Comeaux’s passion included strengthening the Geography community in Arizona included weekly school colloquia, the school forum, brown bag series, invited lectures across campus, professional meetings and educator conferences. The School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University has chosen to honor Professor Comeaux's 32 years of service and dedication to the dissemination of new geographic knowledge by establishing the Malcolm L. Comeaux Lecture Fund to support an annual public lecture at ASU by a leading geographer.
Along with Dr. Robert Mings and a cohort of passionate K-12 teachers, he co-founded the Arizona Geographic Alliance. From 1993 when nine Arizona K-12 teachers were sent to Washington, D.C. to be trained as Teacher Consultants by the National Geographic Society, the Arizona Geographic Alliance (AzGA) has been a force in the social studies scene on a state and national level—training thousands of teachers who have reached over a million students. In co-leading AzGA, Professor Comeaux fostered K-12 teachers learning more about geography from academics through its extensive K-12 maps, summer institutes, and geotrips.
Dr. Comeaux was not only an influential mentor, but also a collegial friend with all the teachers whom he trained in the Arizona Geographic Alliance. At these workshops he shared, “I have just as much to learn from you, as you do from me! You are in the classroom with young people. They need you to guide them for a deeper understanding of what the Science of Geography really means.” Dr. Comeaux blazed a unique AzGA trail across Arizona. He worked with K-12 teachers for their students to ultimately “Think Geography,” for a more astute understanding of the complexities of the human and cultural world – and be better citizens for it!"