Bradford Walker

Walker, Bradford 2/24/1930 - 10/21/2022 Kalamazoo Bradford Heath Walker died peacefully in his home on October 21, 2022 with two daughters and sons-in-law by his side. He was born February 24, 1930 to Charles Hall Walker and Phyllis Thoburn Heath Walker in Seattle, Washington. Brad grew up in northern California, raised by his mother who was a teacher of English and Science at Carmel, Redlands, and Berkeley, California high schools and by his maternal grandparents. Grandfather Harold Heath was a professor at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, where Brad remembered and appreciated through his lifetime watching the spray of the ocean blast up through the rocks. His cremains will be scattered there, as well as interred at the Central Cemetery in Portage, Michigan with those of his wife of 65 years, Marilyn Wind Walker. Brad started working at a young age. He had his first social security card at age 11, when he went to work for Western Union delivering telegrams on his bicycle. At 13, he worked the elevators at Hotel Christie in downtown Hollywood. One celebrity he saw frequently was Adam West, of the TV series Batman. In the evenings, Brad often had tickets to radio shows. World War II was taking place, and adult males were overseas, so jobs for young boys were abundant. While a student at Berkeley High School, Brad sold apples at a fruit market, pumped gas (which was 21 cents per gallon), and mowed lawns. He ran the projectors and did camera work for his high school. In high school, Brad was a member of the Civil Air Patrol and achieved the rank of Lieutenant. Brad's love of all-things-scientific was clear at a young age. When he was ten years old, he found a bag of cash and turned it in to his teacher. The money belonged to the owner of a local bakery, who commended Brad and gave him $5. Brad told the local newspaper reporter covering the event he planned to spend the money on a chemistry set. Young Brad also spent time in the seaside laboratory of renowned American marine biologist Ed Ricketts, better known as Doc Ricketts in John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, who gave Brad one of his pet rats. Brad graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a degree in chemistry and went on to complete his PhD in organic chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While in college, he declined opportunities to join fraternal or academic organizations which did not have people of color nor a broad representation of religions. Brad's summer after graduate school was spent working at UC Berkeley checking procedures for a publisher of chemical processes. Then, he accepted a position earning $590 per month as an organic chemist at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. It is there he met Marilyn June Wind, who would become his wife. Marilyn and Brad met at a dance sponsored by The Live Y'ers a group of young, single people who socialized at the YMCA. "What's your name, beautiful?" he asked when he first approached her. Dating included Sunday afternoon drives on country roads around Schenectady. Brad proposed on a Sunday drive, at a little country church along one of the rural routes they enjoyed. He stopped the car and asked, "Would this be a good church to be married in?" They were married on October 5, 1957, "the most beautiful weekend of the year." They toured New England in a convertible for their honeymoon. In 1960, Brad accepted a position with The Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan and the couple moved to a modest apartment on Oakland Drive in Kalamazoo. Daughter Alison Beth ("Shortcake") arrived in September 1961, and Marilyn and Brad moved to Fleetwood Drive in Portage, Michigan. In February 1967, the family welcomed a second daughter, Lauren Elizabeth ("Speedo"). In 1971, the Upjohn Company promoted Brad to an administrative position at offices in North Haven, Connecticut, and the family moved to Guilford. Brad's inquisitive mind and pragmatic nature immediately missed being in the laboratory. "Changing the process for making hydrocortisone was a crowning glory," he once said and only when asked. "Originally, it had a byproduct that was wasted, and they didn't know what to do with it. When I figured out how to remove those impurities, the process was approved right away." In July of 1976, the family returned to Portage, Michigan. Brad enjoyed fishing on Long Island Sound, Lake Michigan, and various southwest Michigan lakes; soaring, having earned his license for motorless flight in Elmira, New York; delivering school buses; building and re-building everything from the radios to which the family listened and televisions they watched to a red Chevy S-10 that affectionately became known as Father's Folly and in which Marilyn and Brad put another 70,000 miles on the re-built vehicle; road tripping with CB radios; playing bridge with friends of many decades; and lending a helping hand. More recently, he often referenced a book that had been his mother's to identify birds gathering on the four feeders atop the 15' telescoping pole outside his apartment window. He smiled as he heard chimes of the clock he had been given for 25 years of service to the Upjohn Company and in seeing his family wind and care for it. He grew a mustache late in his life because friend and son-in-law David did. In addition to demonstrating unwavering honesty and a strong work ethic, Brad demonstrated and taught with his children and grandchildren the importance of having good financial sense -- saving before spending, investing wisely, and limiting or altogether avoiding debt. Brad enjoyed reading the Wall Street Journal every day, right up until his last. Brad was a devoted husband and a loving grandfather, uncle, and father. At the age of 92, he was proceeded in death by his parents; his bride of 65 years, Marilyn; sister Virginia Shelley Walker; and nephew Tony Hjerleid Meltzer. Remaining to treasure memories are Brad's daughter Alison (Pruitt) and partner David Richard Randell; daughter Lauren (Keller) and son in-law Bradley David Keller; beloved grandchildren, Connor Evan Pruitt, Sarah Megan Pruitt and husband James William Wright, Erin Elizabeth Keller, and Benjamin Heath Keller; nephews Paul Brandeis Meltzer, Nicholas Heath Meltzer; Mark Jonathan Meltzer and their children; sister in-law Lois Jeanneret Wind and niece, Carolyn Roberta Wind and partner, Ken Grillo. Per Brad's wishes, cremation has taken place. Cremains will be lovingly interred at Central Cemetery in Portage, Michigan and scattered in the Pacific Ocean offshore Monterey, California. Memorial contributions can be made in honor of Brad to the Kalamazoo Nature Center or WMUK public radio station. Please visit Brad's personalized online guestbook at https://www.langelands.com