Deceased March 11, 2019
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In Memory
Wally passed away on March 11 at a hospice facility near his villa in Towson, Md. He came to Amherst from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. Wally grew up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and in Portland, Maine, and became an excellent skier as a teenager. From Amherst years, Chuck Longsworth ’51 recalls their skiing trips, where Wally displayed his superb athletic skills at Mount Washington’s perilous Tuckerman’s Ravine. He graduated with us (Phi Beta Kappa) and then from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1955. Under the tutelage of the famous theologian Paul Tillich, and as UTS’s leading graduate student, Wally was awarded a one-year scholarship to attend England’s Cambridge University. While there, Wally skied on the Cambridge team against Oxford in Austria and Norway. Returning to the States, he commenced his parish work, lasting over the next 37 years, first in Everett, Maine, then in Simsbury, Conn.; Middlebury, Vt.; and New London, Conn. He married his wife, Lynette, in 1959. They had two boys, David and Peter. Sadly, Lynette died in March 2000 and David in 1992. During his last eight years in New London, Wally became close friends with a rabbi and the rabbi’s Jewish congregation. Both minister and rabbi participated in many lectures and discussions of the differences, commonalities and points of tension between the two religious communities. Wally cites this venture as one of the most satisfying things he did as a pastor. Recalling his Amherst days, he noted that Larry Packard taught that we can be sure of one thing in life, and that is change. Wally recited some changes that were painful and others, marvelous. He was most grateful for the love that helps us cope, and especially the love he shared with his best friend, Lynette.
Everett E. Clark ’51, with input from Chuck Longsworth ’51 and Peter Anderson