Hepburn Walker, Jr. ’41

Hepburn Walker, Jr. ’41 died on August 3, 2005, in Vero Beach, Florida.

Born on March 8, 1918, in Sewickley, PA, he prepared for college at the Choate School in Wallingford, CT, and the Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts, and became a member of Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he attended from 1937 to 1941. During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1945, attaining the rank of airship rigger first class and working with lighter-than-air ships. After the war he returned to the College and received his bachelor’s degree in 1946. After several years of doing sky advertising in Tom’s River, NJ, he opened and operated the Bay Shore Boat Store in Tom’s River. His interest in and devotion to lighter-than-air craft covered more than 70 years, and he wrote numerous aviation articles for magazines and contributed to movies on the subject. He moved to Vero Beach in 1967 and was a member of the Vero Beach Yacht Club, the Vero Beach Country Club, the Moorings Golf Club, and the St. John’s Island Golf Club. He was also a member of the Naval Airship Association Executive Council, was a contributing editor to Aerostation, and was a member of the LTA Society and the Airship Association-UK. Surviving are his wife, Shirley Naeser Walker, whom he married in 1945; two sons, William Walker of Vero Beach and Robert Walker of Vero Beach; a daughter, Barbara W. Burrows of Vero Beach; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.