Dale Rush Walker

Dale Rush Walker, first-generation college graduate, corporate president, marathon runner, ballroom dancer, poet, and philanthropist, reached the end of his remarkable life, surrounded by his family, on July 13. During his 80 years, Dale wrote prolifically, and we, his daughters, drew from his journal reflections to tell this story.

Born in High Point, North Carolina, Dale was the second son of Raymon Lowe Walker and Virginia Rush Walker, workers in the city's textile mills. The family grew their own food, relying on Dale and siblings-Ray, Elaine, and Iris-to tend the garden when young crops needed the most care. By age 12, Dale labored on other farms along Old Winston Road, picking sticky tobacco leaves in the summer sun. The men of the family hunted in the woods behind the barn, squirrels by day and possums by night. Though Dale never liked shooting, his Uncle Ransom taught him how to lift a hissing possum by the tail so it couldn't bite. "Occasionally we'd catch a mother possum with a lot of little babies attached to her-gripping onto her back," he recalled in his journal. "That was fun to see. We always let them go."

As soon as he started Oakview School, Dale knew that education was his ticket to a different life. So, he "worked and worked," always finding the "time and energy to keep at it." Decades later, he'd joke to grandchildren, "I was hardly a well-rounded kid."

At High Point High School, Dale served as class president and went on to study Mathematics at Wake Forest University. A prestigious George Foster Hankins Scholarship covered most costs "for an undergraduate accustomed to spartan living," and part-time library work ("perfect for a nerd") made up the rest. Dale pledged the Sigma Chi fraternity and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

After graduate school, as a Wachovia Fellow in the University of North Carolina's MBA program, Dale accepted his first job at Citibank in New York. As he liked to remind his children, he had to ask his boss for an advance on his first paycheck to buy a suit.

Dale loved the Big Apple-from the little apartment in Queens where his daughter, Ashley, was born to the long subway commute into Manhattan-but his wife, the late Maedell Goodson, longed to live closer to nature. So, in 1970, with a second daughter, Whitney, on the way, Dale answered an ad ("Aggressive West Coast Bank Seeks Qualified Lending Officers") and moved the family to California. That bank was Union, where he worked as a Regional VP throughout the 1970s. In the subsequent decade, he served as EVP and Board Chairman at Wells Fargo Bank. In the final years of his career, Dale led and chaired financial services worldwide, from Los Angeles to Detroit, St. Louis to Shanghai. During retirement, this lifelong learner pulled up stakes again to earn a Masters Degree from the University of London and participate as a Fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative in Boston.

But he always returned to his favorite city, San Francisco. In a poem Dale wrote entitled "Once Upon a Time in the West," he extols, "Oh, San Francisco, magical city by the Bay ... This is my home. This is my place on earth. My state, my coast, my city. My fog, my hills, my views ... My inequality, my injustice. But we're trying, always trying."

Dale possessed a strong commitment to addressing economic inequality and often wrote about the subject in his blog (https://walkerviewpoints.com/) and in published opinion pieces (https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Millennials-and-the-American-myth-Opportunity-is-12274128.php). During retirement, he served as Chair of the Board at Beneficial State Bank for nearly a decade. He contributed to several social impact boards, including Cambridge Science, the Graduate Theological Union, and Pacific Vision Foundation. He established a small charitable foundation and a scholarship at his alma mater Wake Forest.

Dale worked hard, "keeping at it" through his long life, but he did become well-rounded as an adult. An avid marathon runner and award-winning ballroom dancer in the 1980s, Dale had fast feet and liked to keep moving. He took his young family on walks along Shell Ridge with their pet mountain goats. He delighted his daughters by building a go-cart, a treehouse, and even a "rocking chicken," and he could always be counted on to cheat creatively and hilariously at any card game. As a fun grandpa, Dale constructed more treehouses, attended toddler music classes and teen performances, and always dressed up outrageously for Halloween. He rallied siblings and cousins for grand family reunions in the North Carolina Mountains. He adopted a loyal Bishon Frisé named Bravo, and soon the two were inseparable. Dale and his wife, Hanh Vu, traveled extensively, visiting Vietnam, France, and South Africa, with Bravo in tow.

In December, just before his 80th birthday, Dale threw himself an epic party with his whole family in Tijuana, and he kicked off the dancing. Unfortunately, the lymphoma he'd been keeping at bay was progressing and his feet were not fast enough to outrun it this time. But even during his illness, his family and many friends will remember his deep love and incredible concern for others.

Dale is survived by his wife Hanh Vu and their dog Bravo; siblings Ray Walker, Elaine Walker, and Iris French Stewart; and the families of his daughters Ashley Walker (Martin Westhead) and Whitney Walker (Eric Reyes), including his five grandchildren: Faelan Westhead, Taye Walker, Una Westhead, Gabriel Reyes, and Olivia Reyes. May Dale's spirit of generosity live on in all who knew him.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to one of these causes close to Dale's heart: St Jude's Children's Hospital, Meals on Wheels San Francisco, Gendercide Awareness Project, Pacific Vision Foundation, and Graduate Theological Union (see links below). A celebration of Dale Walker's life is planned for early fall. For more information, please contact rememberingdalewalker415@gmail.com.

https://www.stjude.org/

https://www.mowsf.org/

https://www.gendap.org/

https://pacificvisionfoundation.org/

https://www.gtu.edu/