Frank Schiavo -- a messiah of the environment who infused a generation of students with his passion for using as little of planet Earth's resources as possible -- is retiring.

He leaves behind a legacy of environmental consciousness that makes him an icon for those he taught at local high schools and, most recently, San Jose State University.

Consider Schiavo's life: He lives in a solar-powered house. He recycles everything that doesn't make it to his compost pile -- throwing away literally nothing. He takes public transportation to work instead of driving his old car, which is propane-fueled.

His friends say he's a minimalist who uses only what he needs and leaves the rest for others. And for more than a generation, he has taught countless students how to have as little impact as possible on the planet.

But after 41 years of teaching, the past 28 at San Jose State, Schiavo has retired at age 63 because ``I need to find a little more balance in my life.''

Teaching is ``a consuming job,'' he said. ``I'd rather have health and less money than work longer to get a bigger pension and not have good health when I get there. A lot of people go out in a wheelchair or with a stroke.''

Hundreds of his former students now teach environmental studies at elementary and high schools and colleges around the country. Others are in environment-related jobs in business and government regulatory agencies, working to change things from the inside out.

For his legions of friends and colleagues, it will seem strange that Schiavo's no longer in the classroom.

``Frank is a very gentle, kind, intelligent man who is just utterly concerned with the environment and what we humans have done to the planet and what we can do to solve problems,'' said Kristin Jensen Sullivan, who took a class from him in 1982 and now teaches environmental studies at De Anza College.

Words of praise

``There are very few who live and breathe the lifestyle Frank has. He absolutely practices what he preaches,'' she said. ``He has a fantastic sense of humor on top of it all.''

As an environmentalist, Schiavo is ``the messiah, the leader, the one the rest of us try to strive for but will never get there,'' said San Jose State colleague Gary Klee, who headed the environmental studies program for eight years. ``He's the one we try to emulate to a certain degree -- although Frank goes way out on a limb. He's an extremist.

``The man doesn't create any trash. He doesn't use computers. He doesn't have a television. He broke down a couple of years ago and bought a record player. His house was broken into, and there was nothing to steal in there. He's a modern-day urban Thoreau,'' Klee said.

Steve Kelly of San Jose, a friend for more than 20 years, says Schiavo is ``really a guy that walks the walk. A lot of people say they want to make the world a better place, and then, `Excuse me while I back out my SUV.'

``Frank's a minimalist. He has two pairs of pants, three shirts. The world needs more people like Frank. He has taught us so much about taking less for yourself and leaving more for the world.''

Schiavo graduated from San Jose State in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in physics and math, and got his teaching credential in 1962. He taught at James Lick High School in 1962-63 and Willow Glen High School from 1963 to 1974.

But in 1965-66, he took a leave of absence and returned to San Jose State to earn his master's. His younger brother, Karl, was a San Jose State senior at the time. ``My brother spotted a class in conservation of natural resources, so we took the class together,'' Schiavo said. ``It just changed my life.''

He started teaching an environmental studies class when he returned to Willow Glen High. In 1974, he began teaching at San Jose State. His classes were designed to prepare elementary school teachers to bring environmental topics into their classrooms.

``He was a wellspring of environmental education, one of the very first teachers who devoted himself to that,'' said retired environmental journalist Tom Harris of Ben Lomond, who met Schiavo more than 30 years ago and remains a close friend.

``He is the most unassuming, unpretentious guy, but you cut him loose in front of a bunch of kids, he was just born to teach,'' Harris said.

Touched lives

``He had an immense impact on the environment of the state because of the lives he touched with his teaching. . . . He did not propagandize students. He demanded that they read newspapers, watch TV, search for the truth and then understand it when they got it.''

Graduate student Ralph Schardt of San Jose, who left a career in high-tech and at age 50 is getting his master's degree in environmental studies, said Schiavo ``creates an atmosphere in the classroom where everybody is respectful of everybody else. . . . The whole idea is to make students feel that their voice is equally important with everybody else's, including the teacher's.''

Schardt also said Schiavo makes environmentalism personal, recalling a time when Schiavo shaved his head and eyebrows for a weeklong seminar on nuclear waste so he would look like he had been irradiated.

``He taught me ways to think of the environment as more about conserving and living a way of life, looking inward,'' said Schardt, who will teach environmental studies at San Jose State this fall. ``Frank lives his life so he has as little impact on the planet as he can.''

Schiavo's home in East San Jose, built as a simple tract house, now has a solar room that provides heat in winter and cooling in summer. Solar cells heat water and generate electricity. In his yard, landscaped in native plants, are an organic garden and composting operation.

Rewarding job

Teaching has been rewarding, Schiavo said. ``I often came away feeling this subject teaches itself. It's an amazing experience to teach something so universally responded to. Kids have an amazing ability to see right and wrong.''

In retirement, Schiavo plans to consult on solar designs for homes, and to travel. It's been six years since his marriage ended, he said.

``There's a lot of countryside, and I've never been anywhere,'' Schiavo said. ``I was a city guy. I need to see if the environment I worked for is still there out there.

``I don't think I got burned out. It is better to leave teaching when the audience wants more of you rather than them saying, `Oh, you're finally retiring.' It's a nice feeling to know the students will miss me -- and I will miss them.''

But Klee, his former colleague, doesn't see it that way.

Although Schiavo is ``technically retired, that doesn't mean he's going away. He's such a devoted teacher, he's going to hang around the department,'' Klee predicted. ``Students will still be hanging around him. The only difference is that he's not being paid.''