Walter Masson

WESTFORD - Walter Masson, 91, formerly of Jamaica Plan, Needham and Chelmsford, died Tuesday, March 16 at the Westford House Nursing Home. He was the husband of the late Esther (Maiers) Masson.

For more than 50 years, Mr. Masson freelanced, as an avocation, in garden and feature writing/photography for newspapers and magazines. His articles have appeared in The Boston Sunday Globe, Boston Herald, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, as well as Yankee and Organic Gardening magazines, plus other publications.

For two decades, he self-syndicated a garden column that ran in up to 20 major daily newspapers in the Northeast.

He received a Merit Award for his columns from the National Garden Bureau in 1980 and was featured as an expert garden photographer in Popular Photography magazine in 1961.

Mr. Masson retired as promotion manager of the National Fire Protection Association in 1977. Prior to that, he was advertising director for the former Breck's of Boston, seedsmen since 1818. He held similar positions with Cambosco Scientific Co. and Sears Roebuck & Co.'s mail-order division.

He was a member of the Garden Writers Association of America and a former member of the Mail Selling and Advertising Clubs of Boston.

He started his career during the Great Depression in 1930 as a compositor in the printing trade.

Mr. Masson was born in Boston. He and his family moved to Needham in 1952.

In his younger days, he was active in Needham organizations, including the Needham Community Council, Needham Council on Aging, and he served as a volunteer publicity photographer for the Needham Fire Department. For seven years, he was editor and photographer for the "News" of the Congregational Church of Needham.

He is survived by three sons and their wives, Conrad and Sandra Masson of Westford, William and Lynn Masson of Littleton, and Kenneth and Mariana Masson of Chelmsford; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren.