Walter Otto Stanford

Walter Otto Stanford

College Station, TX

Walter Otto Stanford passed away at age 99 on Sunday, 19 March 2017 in College Station, Texas. Walter was born on Aug. 4, 1917 to Benjamin Franklin Stanford and Hedwig Romberg Stanford in downtown Houston, Texas where he spent his childhood. Walter loved music and founded and led his high school marching band. At the age of 18 he soloed the Sunrise Service at Miller Outdoor Theatre and played several concerts as a cornetist with the Houston Symphony. He attended the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Austin, earning a degree in Biology. In 1942 he graduated from the UT Texas Dental College with a DDS degree, joined the Navy and was subsequently shipped off to the South Pacific where he remained treating patients in military hospitals and aboard ships for the remainder of WW2.

Walter remained in the Navy, and after a stint in post-war Italian waters aboard the USS Adirondack, he was sent to Korea with the Marine Corps. He was the dentist in a mobile surgical hospital near the front lines throughout the war. When the war ended he returned to the U.S. and started a private practice in Port Arthur, Texas, where he met his wife, Sue Schroeder Stanford. They married in 1957 and moved to Corpus Christi as he returned to active duty in the Navy. While stationed in northern California in the early 1960s he was sent to Okinawa, Japan for one year. He retired as a Captain from the U.S. Navy in 1968.

Walter and his family lived in Corpus Christi, where he practiced dentistry until 1987, then moved to College Station to live with his son Frank in 2012 upon the death of his wife. Walter was a 50 yr. member of the Texas Dental Association, a member of the Corpus Christi Commodores Barbershop Chorus throughout the 1970's, loved fixing things, fishing, and driving his family all over the U.S., Canada and Alaska on many summer-long camping trips. Walter also enjoyed helping his wife Sue in many of her volunteer endeavors, attending Texas A&M football and baseball games, regular trips to Colorado and numerous trips with Sue about the world. The last 4 years of his life he was a member of the Houston Symphony and the Houston Liederkranz German Club where he sang German songs with peers weekly. Regular attendance of these two organizations gave Walter tremendous pleasure.

He is survived by his daughter Laurie Alda Stanford Saylak and son-in-law Thomas J. Saylak of Scarsdale, NY, son Frank Schroeder Stanford of College Station, TX, granddaughter Genevieve Stanford Saylak and fiancé Gregory Rudin of New York, NY, his brother-in-law William Schroeder, nieces Diane Rhodes, Barbara Schroeder, Jennifer Bokar-Schroeder, nephews George Murphy, David Murphy, Arthur Warren, Wayne Hennecke and numerous cousins, grand nieces and nephews.

Funeral service will be held at 1:30pm on Saturday, 25 March, 2017 at the Seaside Funeral Home Chapel.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Honor Flight Austin, 815-A Brazos St UPS Box 498, Austin, TX 78701 or at www.honorflightaustin.org.