Harley Jesse (Jess) Walker, born on the Fourth of July, 1921 (two days after President Harding signed the resolution that officially ended WW I and a day before a patent was issued on a new type of milking machine), outlived his two parents and one sister but is blessed to leave one sister, a wife (Rita), three daughters, nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren all healthy, productive and enjoyable to be around. A member of the ‘Greatest Generation’ and a USMC pilot of World War II, Jess had as his objective “To be different” (as noted in the “Tale of the Tiger,” the San Luis Obispo High School Annual, XIII,18). His favorite Poem-the one that served as his guide until the end—was “I would rather be a could be, if I could not be an are, for a could be is a maybe with a chance of touching par. I would rather be a has been than a might have been by far, for a might have been has never been and a has been was once an are” (Anon). Please feel free to adopt as your own, as Jess did in the 1930s. Jess, with depression-dictated frugality (no reason to change now), friendly to education throughout his life, and with a long-time interest in science, has requested that, sans memorial service and funeral, his body be used in the furtherance of Medical Science and that monies saved be added to the C.J. and C.B. Walker Academic Award at Morro Bay High School, California or the Department of Geography and Anthropology, LSU. Any of you who have read this far and feel so inclined to follow suit can be assured that a contribution will go to the assistance of young people in their academic endeavors.
Published in TheAdvocate.com from May 30 to May 31, 2015 – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=harley-jesse-walker-jess&pid=174973877#sthash.NIeeKTsV.dpuf