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221C0006-30F8-4BB5-BB984B50E3E67B5B

Stevens Hawthorne Walker '44

May. 7, 1922-Apr. 28, 2006

Stevens Hawthorne Walker ’44, employed for 35 years in management by General Electric Co., was born on May 7, 1922, in Rutherford, NJ. The elder son of Clarence H., a transportation company executive, and Evelyn Stevens Walker, he came to College Hill in 1940 from Rutherford High School. Steve Walker joined Delta Upsilon and went out for football, basketball, and baseball. He also took on roles with the Charlatans and participated in Hamilton’s wartime civilian pilot training program, learning to fly a Piper J3 out at the Utica Airport. By the spring of 1943, he was in uniform as an Army Air Corps pre-meteorology student at New York University. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he served as a weather officer through the end of World War II and later attained the rank of captain in the Air Force Reserve. In 1946, while still in uniform, he returned to the Hill to receive his diploma, the College having accepted credits he had earned in military service.

In 1948, shortly after acquiring an M.B.A. degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business Administration, Steve Walker began his long employment with GE. Starting out in its marketing training program, he was promoted to assistant to the manager of marketing research. In 1951, he became manager of sales control for GE’s X-ray department. He was assigned to various locations during the course of his early career with GE, including North Carolina and Wisconsin. Before its conclusion, his career encompassed research, marketing management, long-term strategic planning, and directing a variety of special new business studies. He also undertook special assignments for U.S. Government programs and for the Electronics Industry Association.

By the late 1950s, Steve Walker had settled in the Syracuse, NY, area, where he and his wife, the former Penelope Schneider, who were wed in 1954, reared their three daughters. In 1984, a few years after the death of his wife, Steve Walker was married to Barbara Brown Kaiser. Fond of sailing and motor-boating, he again took up flying in his 60s. However, a heart condition ended his flying in 1984, as well as his employment with GE.

Steve Walker retired from the company as manager of consumer electronics market research, and he and Barbara moved that year to Seneca, SC, to which he was lured by the waters of Lake Keowee. Briefly ill, Stevens H. Walker died in that corner of South Carolina near the Georgia and North Carolina borders on April 28, 2006. A loyal supporter of the College, he is survived by his wife and daughters Penelope (Penny) Harrington, Jill Symmonds, and Patricia Stokes; two stepdaughters and six stepsons; and six grandchildren.

 

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Note: Memorial biographies published prior to 2004 will not appear on this list.



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