IN HONOR OF or A DEDICATION TO "A COUSIN"
Malcolm Walker and family events: (maybe we should call him our 'cousin' - we received and gave favors, helped each other, and occasionally hurt feelings too!)
My mother had known his mother in California since even before my parents had gotten married in Hollywood. They were good friends, kind of like sisters. They kept in contact over the years but sometimes other family events took away close contact. Maybe we can look at Malcolm as like a cousin. At times we had close contact and then maybe years passed before we talked with each other. In high school we went over to their house for dinner at times. Kind of funny -- once I was climbing the grassy bank at Georgia Tech up to the library on a bright sunny day and I ran into him. He had just made it back from the Korean War; he told me his dad wanted him back in school as an electrical engineer. He didn't want to study that. So I took him down to the architectural department to introduce him to various professors and students. He ended up transferring to there instead of EE. Later, we actually graduated in the same class. However, I must say years later he proved to be a good friend or family member when my Dad was dying of cancer. I had flown back to Atlanta from Wyoming; Malcolm picked me up at the airport and took me to the hospital. He also took me up to the hospital in north Georgia where Bruce was in for a visit. Later he picked me and the kids up from the train station. He came out and got a building set up for Tedi to do her art work in. I think this was a payback for all the art lessons Tedi gave him while he was in college too. I had gone back to Wyoming as per Jimmy's instructions. Jimmy didn't want Rendy, Cary, and Julie to have to deal with death yet. When Jimmy passed on Malcolm helped Bruce and Tedi handle the funeral. Years later he visited me in Rawlins on his way from leaving a job with Bechtel and going to a new job back East. He eventually married and had 2 children. One year Joy, his daughter, wanted to ride in the wilderness. He brought her out to Oregon, where I borrowed a horse from a friend and took the 2 of them for a wilderness trip in the mountains east of Salem. I know Bruce had a lot more contact with him, since both of them lived in the San Francisco area for a long time. One time when I was visiting Bruce I met Malcolm in downtown San Francisco and helped him clean up one of his apartment buildings that had been vacated. Lots of work, but we went down to the Pier and had a great dinner before going back to his place. After Tedi's passing he helped Bruce clean up her house and move lots of stuff out to California. I had been without a job for 2 years and just got one for Klamath Falls County. I was able to leave for a short while to go thru the county death filing requirements in Georgia, but could not take more time off. Helping getting all that settled was a big job and achievement. Even after Tedi had passed on I also called his mom fairly regularly checking up on her until she was moved to her daughter's place in south Georgia. He also came and helped me and Bruce get the sheep ranch I owned in Marcola ready to sell. During that time I found out that his father had adopted him when she married again. He was originally a McKenzie. To come and help me during this situation was kind of like a cousin; he certainly was a very good person and friend. His desperate situation after having a stroke and being moved away from Bruce's and my contact was sorrowful. We had drifted in and out of each others' lives over our whole lifetime, as families do. In college I had also gone to his sister George-Ann's wedding. Over the years I only had one other person that was such a big part of my life - Art Davidson who was like a Grandpa to my kids.