Lowell Technological Institute - Pickout Yearbook (Lowell, MA)

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Pill alfeer Bill Walker isn ' t with us any more. He is with Steve Smith, Paul Stursburg, and other old fellows of Lowell Textile that have passed on. But the spirit of Bill will always be with us as long as those who knew him live on this earth. We are always going to remember him and to think of his interest and friendliness and usefulness in all our work. Bill loved his friends and they loved him. Vermont was his home and today he is back there sleeping among the hills that he loved. We can ' t forget such a chap for he left too deep an impression on us to do that. Let us try to visualize the kind of a fellow that Bill was. A boy in North Hartland, Vermont, he excelled his fellows in sports such as baseball and basketball. With his father superintendent of a woolen mill, it was natural for the boy to follow in his father ' s footsteps, and so after the village schools and Vermont Academy had done all they could in the way of an education for him, he came to Lowell Textile in 190-t. Bill was popular from the start. He became a member of Omicron Pi Fraternity and a prominent man in school, playing upon the varsity basketball team which defeated Dartmouth ' s great team. After leaving Lowell in 1906, Bill was with the Ottaquechee Woolen Mills in Evarts for about two years, and was then connected with the Worcester Woolen Company from 1909 to 1912 when he went to the American Woolen Company ' s mills in Winooski, Vt. In 1915 Bill was made superintendent of the Ottaquechee Woolen Company at Evarts, Vt., the old mill that his father had superintended for many years. After six years of successful service with this company, he organized the Walker Woolen Company in Ashuelt, N. H. and ran this mill until 192o when he became superintendent of the American Woolen Company ' s mill at Webster, Mass. In February of 1927. Bill became agent of the Fabyan Woolen Co. at Stafford Springs, Connecticut. This position he held at the time of his death. To show the type of chap that Bill Walker was, we recall to mind that while Bill was superintendent of his father ' s old mill in Vermont, he organized the Boy Scouts and had a cabin built for them to use. These boys always think of him as their leader and the best friend that they ever had. Bill had taken all the degrees in both the York and Scottish rites of Masonry. He had been Commander of the Knight Templars at White River Junction, Vt., as well as being a member of the Odd Fellows and the Elks. Bill Walker was born in Philadelphia, Pa., and was forty-three years old at the time of his death. He is survived by his mother and two brothers. n Appreciation The Pickout wishes to express its gratitude to James F. Dewey, ' 0-t. for the obituary of William Walker, ' 06. Mr. Dewey was a very close friend of Mr. Walker and kindly consented to undertake writing a few words in memory of his friend, Bill . And we feel that these words were written as Bill would have wished.