Walter Irving Roberts

WALTER I. ROBERTS 1924-2013 Walter Irving ("Walt") Roberts, a World War II veteran whose career in journalism, photography, and advertising spanned more than 4 decades, passed away at the Veterans' Hospital in Philadelphia on August 15, 2013, following a lengthy illness. He was 88 years old, and had been a resident of Medford Lakes, Medford, and Marlton, NJ, since 1959. Roberts was born in Lower Merion, PA, on October 15, 1924, and grew up in West Chester and Narberth, PA. His parents were Horace and Elizabeth Roberts. He joined the U.S. Army during World War II, and served as a staff sergeant in the Pacific Theater with Battery A, 757 AAA Gun Battalion, Coastal Artillery Command, based on Saipan. After being honorably discharged in 1947, he established a photography business in Narberth. Later, he enrolled as a journalism major at Temple University in Philadelphia, graduating in 1952 with his B.A. While studying at Temple, he met fellow student Emilie Lucile Klammer, whom he married in 1953. The couple celebrated their 60th anniversary in June. During the early and mid-1950s, Roberts worked as a reporter and photographer for several newspapers and magazines in the Delaware Valley area, including the Wilmington Record, the Moorestown News-Chronicle, the Haddon News, the Bucks County Chronicle, the Main Liner, and the Main Line Times. By the late 1950s, he had moved into corporate communications, with General Electric and RCA, and also operated a photography business in Reading, PA. From 1960 until his retirement in 1989, he was an advertising executive with the Westminster Press publishing company in Philadelphia. A gifted athlete, Roberts starred in track and field at West Chester High School. He participated in the famous Penn Relays at Philadelphia's Franklin Field several times in the early 1940s - once outpacing his competitors by such a great distance that judges thought at first he was just warming up and yelled at him to get off the track because a race was in progress. Shortly after World War II, while still stationed on Saipan, he represented his unit at the "U.S. Army Olympics" held in occupied Tokyo. Among his many avocations, he was an avid reader, an inveterate writer of short story mysteries, a dog lover who enjoyed the company of several pets in his later years, a loyal fan of the Phillies and other Philadelphia area sports teams, and an expert carpenter who single-handedly built additions to the family home in Medford Lakes in the 1960s and 1970s. He was also interested in dramatics, serving as an electrician and lighting engineer on amateur theatricals. After his retirement, he traveled with his wife throughout much of the continental U.S., Hawaii, and Europe. Roberts was a charter member of Medford's Faith United Presbyterian Church, a long-time member of the Medford Lakes Colony Club, and, in the early 1960s, a volunteer umpire for the Medford Lakes Little League. Mr. Roberts was pre-deceased by his sister Elizabeth McKay and brother Wilmer Roberts. He is survived by his wife, Lucile K. ("Lea") Roberts, and by his four children: John W., of Silver Spring, MD; Susan B. Courtney (Larry); Scott A.; and E. June Ellaway-Lunn (David). He is also survived by two grandchildren: Becky Guiendon (B.J.) and Emilie Annika Ellaway-Lunn, and by one great-grandchild, Summer Leigh Guiendon, as well as step grandchildren Jeff Courtney (Marybeth) and Gary Courtney (Tanya), and 4 step great-grandchildren. Among his other survivors are two sisters-in-law (Mildred Henderson and Betty Klammer), 11 nieces and nephews (including William McKay, with whom he grew up in the 1930s and 1940s, and who was virtually a younger brother) and many grand-nieces and grand-nephews. Mr. Roberts' family will receive friends on Tuesday, Aug. 20th, after 10:30 AM at the Grace Episcopal Church in Haddonfield, NJ; where Services will be conducted at 11 AM. Interment will follow at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala-Cynwyd, PA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topkea, KS 66675