Linwood Kenneth Walker

BELFAST - Linwood Kenneth Walker, 91, of Belfast, Maine, died peacefully on June 11, 2014, in New London, New Hampshire, after a brief illness. He was born June 6, 1923, in Searsport, the son of Kenneth A. Walker and Frances C. Walker (Frazier).

Linwood graduated from High School in Searsport and attended Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA. When WWII broke out, he stayed on at Wentworth to train Marine Engineers. He later served as a Staff Sergeant in Company E, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment. He fought in several major battles, including the Battle of the Bulge, and received two purple hearts. He was discharged in 1946 and came home to live in Belfast. There, he started his first business, which involved manufacturing wooden boxes to hold water casks. He later opened up Walker's Machine Shop near the head of Kirby Lake (the "Muck") and then moved the operation to Route 3, near the Crocker Road. The retail side of this business grew and he renamed it" Walker Marine." When a fire destroyed the business, he went to work as a machinist for Penobscot Frozen Food in Belfast where he designed and hand built much of the processing equipment. He retired from that position but continued to work for them on a part-time basis.

Linwood was an avid hunter and fisherman. He had many adventures in northern Maine and Canada with a groups of friends and alone. He and his family loved to spend time at their cottage on Lake St. George. In retirement, he took up many hobbies including wood carving at which he became quite skilled. He also built furniture, tied flies, and even learned to bake bread and make pies.

Linwood is survived by his wife of 51 years, Shirley Elms Walker of Belfast; stepson, Michael Cressey and his wife, Mary, Wright and their two children, Truman and Lauren Cressey, of Grantham, NH; sister, Lula Wright of Rochester, NH; sister, Marian Holmes and her husband, Charles, of Belfast, ME; sister-in-law, Jean Walker; nephew, David Walker and his wife, Helen, and five nieces of Bloomsburg, PA; niece, Elaine Hendrickson and her husband, Eric, of Presque Isle, ME, Vicki O'Donnell and her husband, Michael, Sheila Leach, Toni Story and her husband, Steve, and Paula Cookson; as well as several great-nieces, great-nephews, great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews. He predeceased by his parents; brothers, Chester and Eugene Walker; brother-in-law, John Wright; nephews, John Wright Jr. and Sidney McIntire Jr.; sister-in-law, Ruth Webber; and mother-in-law, Ida Elms and her husband, True H. Elms.