Douglas Walker

Walker, Douglas Sanford "Doug"

Douglas Sanford Walker, aged 93, has reached the end of his long life. Born in 1930 in Louisville, Kentucky as the fourth child of William Brent Walker and Irene Stella Snawder, Doug's early years were spent in Kentucky, Florida and Ohio. After a brief stint in the peacetime Air Force, he met and married Mary Louise Mitchell. Together they had five children (Jan, Gale, Martha, Holly and Clay), eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Doug's first career was as a journalist with the Dayton Daily News. In 1967 he wrote a series of articles on far-right groups. To gather information for the series he went to meetings and joined the Ku Klux Klan under an assumed name. Publication of the series helped to shut down that KKK chapter and earned him the Sidney Hillman Award for "outstanding investigative journalism that exposes social and economic injustices."

Doug and Mary Walker created second careers for themselves when they learned to teach English as a second language. This took them on adventures to Africa, China, Japan and Slovakia. Between travel and teaching opportunities they made Asheville, North Carolina their home. Doug's family will hold a memorial service a later date. They ask that friends and well-wishers visit or send cards to Mary Walker, Aston Park Health Care, 380 Brevard Road, Asheville, NC, 28806.