Leon Kurtz Walters Jr.

Leon Kurtz Walters Jr., 93, died suddenly of a severe gastrointestinal event on November 9, 2017, at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Born on January 28, 1924, in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Leon Kurtz Willman Walters and Grace Gertrude Walters (née Smith), Leon lived his early years in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Columbus, Ohio, where he graduated from North High School in 1942. Leon served in World War II as a shock-tent medic for the 10th Army's 76th Field Hospital during the Battle of Okinawa from April 1, 1945 to June 20, 1945. After graduating from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Education, Leon returned to postwar Japan in 1948 to teach English in Hiroshima. He also worked for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, before returning to the United States in 1951 and earning a master's degree in Sociology from Ohio State University and a master's degree in Far Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Leon worked for the Social Security Administration for 30 years, including seven years in Okinawa on loan to the U.S. Department of the Army. Leon used his fluency in Japanese - and drive to learn its sister language in Okinawa, called Uchinaaguchi - to help set up a new Social Security system ahead of the reversion of Okinawa from U.S. to Japanese control. Leon was the only American at the 1972 reversion ceremony who participated in both the Battle of Okinawa and the reversion.

After retiring from SSA in 1985, Leon worked part-time as an assistant cross country, indoor, and outdoor track coach at Old Mill High School in Millersville Maryland, for 15 years, helping the teams earn multiple state championships. He jogged almost every day until age 77, including running with the torch for the Maryland Senior Olympics. Retirement also allowed Leon more time to pursue his passion for researching his Walters and Smith family genealogy, leading to discoveries such as an 1822 document of indenture that released his third-great-grandparents John and Mary Walters from servitude, and the tale of his great-grandfather, Hiram Ibach, a Private in the Union Army, shot at the Battle of Gettysburg, yet spared by a coin in his breast pocket that took the bullet's impact.

Leon wrote his memoir in longhand in 1999, "In Japan Is Many Pity Person," about his experiences in Japan and with its culture, from the Battle of Okinawa to his postwar experiences on Hokkaido and Honshu, then back on Okinawa almost two decades later as a civilian. The title for Leon's book came from a Mrs. Arai, with whom he worked before shipping home after World War II in 1946. She encouraged Leon to return someday and continue helping the Japanese people. The words in broken English Mrs. Arai used to implore Leon - "in Japan is many pity [pitiful] person" - resonated with and inspired him to indeed come back two years later, after earning his undergraduate degree. Serving the Japanese in the devastated city of Hiroshima - whose warmth and resilience Leon never forgot - led him to meet the love of his life, Sadae Yamamoto, to whom he stayed married for more than 67 years.

A resident of Millersville, Maryland, for four and a half decades, Leon was survived by his wife Sadae for 102 days; children Harry (Wanda) Walters, Judy (David) Joss, June Walters, and Amy Walters; four grandchildren and one great-grandchild; seven nieces and nephews; 36 grand- and great-grand-nieces and nephews; and brother-in-law Gary Silcott Sr. Leon was predeceased by his parents; siblings John (Jackie) Walters, Jean (Donald Sr.) Wright, and Grace Silcott; son-in-law Stace Tackaberry; and nephews Luther Wright and Kevin Wright. Leon donated his body for the benefit of medical study and requested that no funeral be held.