Walter White Buckley Jr.

1937 - 2023

Buckley Walter W., Jr. Walter White Buckley, Jr. died October 30, 2023 at his home in New York City. He was born May 2, 1937, in Philadelphia, son of Walter White Buckley and Gladys Pugh Buckley. He graduated from The Episcopal Academy, The Lawrenceville School, Cornell University with a BA in American History and Cornell's Johnson School of Business with an MBA. His business career began as a financial analyst on Wall Street at Walston and Co., working directly with prominent research department head, Charles McGoldrick, co-author with Benjamin Graham of well-known financial management treatises. Returning to Pennsylvania in 1964, he became Treasurer and Investment Manager of Barnes and Tucker Coal Company. In 1967 Walter began a long career at Bethlehem Steel, becoming Chairman of the Pension Fund Trustees and its internally managed pension fund. Subsequently in 1987, Walter cofounded Buckley Muething Capital Management with David Muething. He retired in 2013 at age 75. Throughout his business career, Walter was involved in several business start-up ventures, among them The Home Depot. He served as a Director of Educators Mutual Life Insurance for 30 years. His fervent interest in education, as he said, "the bedrock of our democratic society," was manifest as an active trustee for The Episcopal Academy, Moravian Academy and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation where he served four years as Chairman. At both Episcopal and The Lawrenceville School, 16 Buckley Scholars annually receive full tuition and summer travel enrichment. His practice was to meet twice annually, one-on-one, with each student recipient. He established endowment for need-based student scholarships and for children of faculty at Moravian Academy in Bethlehem, PA. His primary focus on secondary education was supplemented by engineering and business endowments at Cornell, in honor of his father. He sponsored the wilderness courses for military and public safety veterans offered by the North Carolina Outward Bound School whose endowment he managed pro bono for many years. Walter formed a family foundation in 2016 to provide funds for educational and medical charitable purposes. He is the fourth recipient of the Episcopal Academy 1785 Bowl for "significantly enhancing educational quality." The Woodrow Wilson Foundation honored his leadership with its Walter White Buckley, Jr. Teaching and Learning Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Student volunteers at the University of North Carolina's Carolina Center for Public Service-nearly a thousand, annually- are known as Walter W. Buckley, Jr. Public Service Scholars. He enjoyed 54 years as a trustee, including 10 years as Chairman, of his beloved Camp Tecumseh (est. 1903) in New Hampshire. This was a favored task perhaps because it was the closest official responsibility to the role most joyful in his life, that of father and grandfather. Walter's analytical bent and clear-eyed vision made him a valuable trustee of civic, church, and medical institutions, including the National Episcopal Church Endowment, the Lehigh Valley Foundation and St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, PA. He chaired St. Luke's Finance and Investment Committees for many years and established a chair in cardiology and need-based scholarships for nursing. He created two endowments for the Cleveland Clinic. He served as trustee of NYU Langone Health since 2018. When chosen as an Honorary Alumnus of NYU Langone Medical Center, Walter opined that his primary qualification was that he had sampled almost half of its specialties! He was an enthusiastic trustee for nine years of the American Battlefield Trust. Walter's belief in the importance of American History education led him not only to sponsor annual visits by the most prominent historians to The Episcopal Academy and The Lawrenceville School but also to sponsor development of the Driving Force Institute, a nationwide state-by-state effort to enhance the teaching of American History. Its initial Walter W. Buckley, Jr. annual award to a person who reflects Walter's labors in this endeavor was presented July 4th to Dr. Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New York Historical Society. His significant participation in national politics was also a reflection of his unassailable desire to sustain the founding values of his country. Walter always amazed his family and cab drivers with his encyclopedic knowledge of arcane minutiae from the world of sports, especially those in which he had perpetually lettered and had been a valued team leader - football, basketball, baseball, and tennis. His four children and several of his eleven grandchildren were alternately encouraged and mortified by his sideline antics during their athletic events, where he became fondly known to their teammates as "the man in the yellow pants" ... earning the yellow cards. He was a member of U.S. Seniors Golf, Merion Golf Club, Merion Cricket Club, Saucon Valley Country Club and, for 59 years, Pine Valley Golf Club. His residential memberships were Bald Peak Colony Club and The Lost Tree Club where he served as a trustee of its foundation. He was predeceased by his sister, Mary Florence Bradbeer. He is survived by his four children, Walter White Buckley, III (Susan) and Brooke Ashforth (Thomas), children with his first wife (1959-'69) Sally Chapman; Alexandra Buckley Voris (Michael) and Robert Edgar Florence Buckley (Milano); the aforementioned eleven grandchildren and his wife of 48 years, Marjorie Bryan Buckley. A Service of Thanksgiving for this good life will be celebrated at 11:00 A.M., November 29th at Grace Church in New York, beloved in all ways by Walter, and where he often amused those nearby by whistling along with the choir. Instead of flowers, a contribution in Walter's memory might be considered for Camp Tecumseh's Blue/Gray Scholarship Fund (https://www.camptecumseh.net/) or to further the good work of a charity of your choice.