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Donald D. Walker, age 88, passed away peacefully at his home in Moraga, Calif., on the evening of Oct. 28, 2006.
Donald D. Walker was born May 9, 1918, in Bristow, Okla., the eldest son of Elsie and Dilver Walker. He lived in Bristow for eight years where his father taught manual arts and mathematics at Bristow High School. His mother also taught school.
In 1926, the family moved to a farm four miles southwest of Tuttle, Okla. Don graduated from Tuttle High School in 1935, and the following fall enrolled at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.
In November 1939 he interrupted his studies and accepted an assignment with the Social Security Board in Washington, DC. A few months after starting his new job, Don enlisted in the Washington, DC, National Guard (he had previously been a member of the Oklahoma National Guard in Norman and Edmond) and he was ordered to active duty as a "buck" sergeant with the 29th Division at Ft. Meade, Maryland.
After the United States entered WW II, Don was sent with the Americal Division to the South Pacific in January 1942. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in September 1942 and served in the South Pacific until October 1944.
He returned to the United States, serving in a training battalion at Camp Robinson, near Little Rock, Arkansas. While in Arkansas, he met and married Betty Barnard in 1945.
Don was discharged from the Army in January 1946 and returned to Washington, DC, to resume his Civil Service career. Both he and Betty worked in the Pentagon while living in Arlington, Va.
In June 1946, Don was recruited by the Army Civil Affairs Division and returned to active duty assigned to the War Crimes Investigation Team in Nürnberg, Germany. He worked two years with the war crimes and denazification proceedings in Nürnberg and other cities in West Germany, served as military governor in Bayreuth and was present during the Berlin Airlift. He returned to Fort Meyer, Va. in 1949 and continued on active duty making a career with the Army. Subsequent assignments included Camp Stoneman, Calif., Seoul, Korea, Yokohama, Japan, Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Carson, Colo.
He retired from active duty in 1961 at the grade of Lieutenant Colonel.
He moved to Moraga, Calif. and resumed his Civil Service career, working as the Chief Comptroller at Oakland Army Terminal and the Presidio of San Francisco, Calif.
During his civil service career, he served twice in Germany, returning to California after each overseas assignment. He traveled extensively during these assignments, visiting all of the European countries west of the Iron Curtain.
He retired from the civil service in 1979. In retirement, he returned to his college education, graduating with a bachelors degree in history from California State University, Hayward, in 1983, and a masters degree in 1989. During this period and subsequently, he traveled widely in the United States, visiting all 50 states, and abroad, including China, Russia, Ecuador, Turkey, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Europe.
Don was very active in Saint Stephens's Episcopal Church, Orinda, Calif., serving on the vestry for three terms and in other capacities during the past 45 years.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Betty, his children Anne, Douglas and Alice, Philip and Nora, his granddaughter Erin Elizabeth, and brothers Bob, and Darrell and Moonine.
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