Walter Baum

1922 - 2018

Walter Baum May 6, 1922 December 6, 2018 At age 96, Walter Baum died peacefully on December 6, 2018, at his home of 52 years in San Rafael, California. Walter was born on May 6, 1922, in Germany, the only child of his parents Joseph and Bettina Baum. His parents died of natural causes within a year of each other, and Walter immigrated to the United States in 1935 to live with his paternal aunt. After graduating from high school, he attended City University of New York for a little more than a year before being drafted into the Army. His first day of active duty was New Year's Eve, 1942, in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Walter was assigned to the Army infantry and, after basic training at Camp Croft, South Carolina, he was stationed with the Seventh Division at Fort Ord, California. He fought in the invasions of the Aleutian Islands (1943), Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands and Leyte in the Philippines (1944), and Okinawa (1945). He was wounded three times, first on Kwajalein, then in the Philippines, and finally on Okinawa. He was awarded the purple heart with oak leaf cluster for the two earlier wounds. The last wound was sustained when he single-handedly took out a Japanese machine gun nest that had pinned down his unit. For this action, he was awarded a bronze star for valor. Upon discharge, Walter earned a BA in Economics and Statistics from New York University (NYU), and did some graduate work at Columbia University and NYU. After working for a couple of years as a statistician in private industry, he joined the Social Security Administration in 1950. Over the next 30 years, he moved through increasingly senior positions in New York, Chicago, and the national headquarters in Baltimore before being promoted, in 1966, to direct the Western Program Center for the Bureau of Retirement and Survivors' Insurance in San Francisco. He retired in 1980. In 1947, Walter married Barbara Claire Bronstein on the birthday they both shared, May 6th. They were happily married for over 71 years, and had one daughter, Erica. Walter and Barbara enjoyed international travel, camping, backpacking, and hiking, along with a great love of the arts regularly attending performances of the San Francisco Opera, Symphony, and Ballet. To those who knew him best, Walter exemplified the greatest generation: smart, insightful, curious, compassionate, principled, brave, humble, honest, kind, loving (the best Dad a kid could hope for), but also terminally shy and with a wicked sense of humor. He was a thrice wounded, decorated veteran, with a permanent combat-related disability, who never spoke of his combat service. He was a committed public servant who always worried about the larger public good and those who needed help to live the American dream, as he did. He was an innovative leader who cared deeply about the quality of his agency's work and his employees' well-being. He was an immigrant for whom English was a second language and who cared for others in the same boat, no matter their demographics or countries of origin. He was a man who took justice and social justice seriously and not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. He will be greatly missed by his surviving wife, Barbara, his daughter, Erica, and his friends and neighbors.