John Howland Walker ’46 died on June 28, 2005, in McLean, Virginia.

Born on July 8, 1925, in Scranton, PA, he prepared for college at Concord (MA) High School and became a member of Theta Delta Chi Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he entered in February of 1943. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy from July 1943 to March of 1946, attaining the rank of radioman 3rd class. He graduated from Bowdoin in September of 1948 as a member of the Class of 1946 and did graduate work in French at the University of Grenoble in France. From 1951 to 1955, he was an administrative assistant and a productivity assistant with the Marshall Plan in Paris and a special assistant to the mission director in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1956, he joined Air France in New York City as a sales representative. He became district sales manager in Philadelphia, PA, and in 1967 moved to the Washington, D.C., area to become regional vice president for the eastern United States. He was responsible for the successful introduction of Air France’s Concorde air service into Washington in 1976. Before his retirement in 1996, the French government recognized his accomplishments with Air France by awarding him the Legion of Honor. For two years after his retirement, he remained a consultant to Air France. He was also well known for playing three golf courses in three different countries on one day, July 25, 1967 – at the St. Andrews Old Course in Scotland, in London at the Sunningham Golf Club, and at the St. Cloud Golf Club in Paris, starting the day at 3:55 a.m. and finishing at 8:15 p.m. Surviving are his wife, Colette Hall Walker, whom he married in 1954; a son, William H. Walker of McLean; a sister; a brother; and two grandchildren.