Walter Checkley Tiffany

Tiffany, Walter Checkley ("Check") Age 81, of Grand Marais (Gunflint Lake) died at sunset on Christmas Day, following a brief battle with cancer. Check was born in Los Angeles on Aug. 4, 1925, and came to St. Paul as a teenager with his brother, Frank Tiffany, to attend St. Paul Academy, where he graduated in 1942 and promptly joined the Marine Corps during World War II. Following the war, Check attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he met his wife of 51 years, Adel Parsons Tiffany, with whom he had four daughters, and who preceded him in death in 1999. After joining the San Francisco office of The St. Paul Companies in 1947, Check moved his family to St. Paul to work in the home office of The St. Paul, where he worked as an underwriting executive until 1982, when he took early retirement to move with Adel to their remote cabin on Gunflint Lake on the edge of the Boundary Waters, where they enjoyed frequent canoe trips. Check also enjoyed many athletic pursuits in earlier years, including racing ‘C' & ‘E' boats on White Bear Lake with his Uncle Mike, playing tennis, curling at the St. Paul Curling Club, handball and racquetball at the St. Paul Athletic Club, in addition to jogging and cross-country skiing. Check had a profound love of the BWCA wilderness area, which he demonstrated through his service on the board of St. Paul YMCA Camp Widjiwagan. He was particularly involved with starting Widji's winter snowshoeing program. In recent years, Check served on the board of the North Shore Healthcare Foundation in Grand Marais and was active in other area community organizations, including the Gunflint Trail Fire & Rescue Assoc. Check remarried in 2004 and is survived by his second wife, Cynthia Imsdahl-Tiffany, and his four daughters, Carol Rone, Laura Tiffany (Ned Foster), Peggy Tiffany of Marlboro, Vt., Diane Tiffany; and step-daughter, Lara Imsdahl. He also had six grandchildren, who affectionately called him "Grumps", Jerusha and Jessica Rone, Ben and Page Foster, Lindsay and Emily Tiffany - will also miss him. Above all, Check will be remembered for his boundless love of family. He was a devoted and generous husband, father and grandfather and enjoyed nothing more than opening a nice bottle of wine and lingering over a good meal, surrounded by his loved ones. A memorial service will be held in Grand Marais at a date and time to be announced later. Memorials preferred, either to St. Paul YMCA Camp Widjiwagan (to help less fortunate children attend the camp), or to the North Shore Healthcare Foundation, P.O. Box 454, Grand Marais, MN 55604, to support healthcare initiatives in Grand Marais. Friends will be received today, Wed., Dec. 27 from 5-8 at the home of Carol Rone, 1900 Field Ave. in St. Paul.
This obituary was originally published in the Star Tribune.