Embert Walker
December 30, 1925 — January 27, 2010
Lt. Col. Embert D. (Bert ) Walker (USAF, retired) died Wednesday, Jan. 27, in San Antonio. He was 84. Embert was born Dec. 30, 1925, in Seneca, Kan., the only child of LaVina M. Gartin Walker and Harry E. Walker. His mothers family was musically inclined: She played the piano for the silent movies at the local theater and his grandfather and three uncles played violin and guitar. The entire family would gather around the piano to sing and play together. Embert took piano lessons but soon laid claim to a spare trombone we had around the house, he recently recalled. He paid 25 cents a week to the local bandmaster to teach him to play it. He performed with the Seneca City Band and the Seneca High School Band. For the rest of his life he would occasionally pick up his trombone, and was always able to recall a marching band tune or two. He did the same on the piano, almost always picking out the 1920s love song Whispering or an old jazz favorite. He also taught himself to play the bugle and performed with several Shrine Drum and Bugle Corps. Music was always an integral part of his life. His family was of modest means, and Embert was industrious from a young age. In high school he worked three jobs at once. He delivered Western Union telegrams, worked in an auto supply store and had a newspaper route for the St. Joseph, Mo., News-Press. So I was busy practically all day and night, he said. I got up of a morning, delivered newspapers; eight oclock I went to pick up the telegrams and deliver those; and then I went and opened the store and swept the store out; and at eight-thirty or nine oclock I was off to school. At night, he again delivered telegrams and worked at the store until 5:30 or 6 p.m. With his best friend, Mel Dort, he worked during summers shocking wheat and loading horse-drawn wagonloads of it on a local farm. After high school, Embert went with a group of young Seneca men to a National Youth Administration training program in Topeka, Kan., where he learned electronics, carpentry, masonry and other trades. Due to the war, the school soon closed, so he and some friends next went to Salina, Kan., to assemble eyeglasses for the Quentin-Duffens Optical Co. When that work came to an end, he moved to Kansas City, Mo., and filled out a job application at the U.S. Employment Office. His auto supply store experience landed him a job at Harry Johnston Motors, a Plymouth-Dodge dealership and regional parts distributorship. After a brief time as a shipping and receiving clerk he was promoted to running city deliveries, supervising four trucks, two motorcycles and all the delivery men, most his senior"he was only 17. In January 1944 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and went to basic training in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. A friends father arranged to keep him off the dreaded K.P. (Kitchen Patrol) duty, but the work he got was nearly as bad, carrying creosote railroad ties and emptying garbage cans of cinders and ashes from the coal-fired furnaces. His 22 months in the Army Air Corps also included stints at bases in Biloxi, Miss.; San Angelo, Texas; Carbondale, Ill.; Independence, Kan.; Denver, Colo.; and Alamogordo, N.M. After he was discharged in October 1945, Embert moved to St. Joseph, Mo., and went to work for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. digging telephone poles and splicing cables. The next year he moved back to Topeka, Kan. to take advantage of the new G.I. Bill and attend college at Washburn University. He earned his bachelors degree in economics in 1949 while working for International Harvester. During school he met Evelyn Seaman, a native of Beloit, Kan., who was then working as secretary to the president of Seymour Packing Co. The pair went on their first date to Washburns homecoming game in 1948 and married in January 1949. Embert then enlisted in the Air Force, applied for and was accepted to Officers Candidate School. Thus began his long USAF career and the many moves that accompanied it. He first worked as an assistant manager of the Officers Club at Craig Air Force Base, Selma, Ala., before attending training for the Office of Special Investigations in Washington, D.C. Later was a communications squadron commander. His many assignments included Atlanta, Ga.; Warner Robbins Air Force Base, Macon, Ga.; Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa; Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, N.M.; Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Neb.; Hickham Air Force Base, Oahu, Hawaii; Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Miss.; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Great Falls, Mont.; Ubon, Thailand; and Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas. One of the most fascinating jobs he performed was during his OSI years, when the final hydrogen bomb tests were being conducted in the South Pacific in the early 1960s. He was doing intelligence work on Christmas Island, alongside Army and Navy intelligence officers, to maintain the security of the bomb experiments. He recalled that one night during a bomb test he saw a spectacular display of red lines arc across the sky. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. An engineer friend who was with him on the beach that night explained it was a phenomenon of the earths magnetic fields made evident by the explosion. Perhaps the career era he enjoyed most was the year he commanded a communications squadron of 150 in Thailand, during the Vietnam War. The challenges of facilitating wartime communications in a remote jungle environment were great, but Embert often spoke highly of the many admirable men under his command, and the respect was mutual. Just a few years ago, one of those men came to the Walkers door for a visit and greeted his old boss with a smart salute. Over the course of his Air Force career, Embert"who loved a practical joke and had a great sense of humor" had several nicknames, including Chrome Dome for his bald head. Embert retired in 1970 at Carswell. Shortly thereafter he began a second career in civil service. His first such position was with the U.S. Customs Service in El Paso, Texas. In 1973 he went back to work for the Air Force in civilian clothes at Offutt Air Force Base. While there, he attended weekend classes in Kansas City, Mo., ultimately earning a masters degree in business at Central Michigan State University of Mount Pleasant, Mich. In 1984, the Walkers moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he worked first at Randolph Air Force Base and then at Kelly Air Force Base before retiring in 1990. Emberts lifelong hobby was amateur (ham ) radio, which he enjoyed for more than 50 years, identified by his call letters as K0JIH. He maintained friendships throughout the world over the course of those five decades, and just months before his death spoke with friends on the air on his regular 10 a.m. Sunday schedule. He was an active member of the local Quarter Century Wireless Club. He also loved to work on cars, and could build or repair almost anything around the house, from furniture to electronics. He was involved with computers from the beginning of their development for defense purposes, and thus was a home computer buff as well. He built his own personal computers and often built and gave computers to others who could not afford them. He loved to encourage young people, especially those with few opportunities for advancement. Embert was also a 32nd-degree Mason and a member of the Scottish Rite and Shrine for 60 years. He was never more gratified than when he was able to facilitate the care of a sick child at a Shrine Hospital. He had a soft spot for the Walker dogs, especially his and his wifes first dog, Spike, a boxer to whom he taught many tricks. Embert encouraged the independence of his wife, daughters and granddaughter, and supported their personal and academic dreams and goals; he was a feminist by nature. Though his biological family was small, he genuinely enjoyed his familys large network of friends. He was a mentor to many young men, those who worked for him and his daughters and granddaughters friends. Embert not only served his country, but also his community, family and friends. He was a man of honor, fidelity and devotion. Embert is survived by his wife of 61 years, Evelyn Seaman Walker; his daughter Lauren Scott of San Antonio; daughter Hollis Walker and partner Amy Ecclesine of Berkeley, Calif.; granddaughter Clare Mortimer Jacobs of San Antonio; Michael Jacobs of Dallas; and godson Cameron Trussell of Colorado Springs, Colo. Visitation will be held at 9:30 a.m. with services at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, at Windcrest United Methodist Church, 8101 Midcrown Drive. Burial with military honors will follow at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. A reception will be held afterward at the church. Arrangements are being handled by Schertz Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Emberts honor to the Alzheimers Association, www.alz.org (click on Donate ) or by mail at P.O. Box 96011, Washington, D.C. 20090-6011, or to the animal shelter of the donors choice.
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