Colonel Robert Oscar Walters

1927 - 2020

FORT WORTH - "The Colonel." That is how we knew him, and that is how we forever will think of him.

Colonel Robert Oscar Walters passed away Dec. 21, 2020, on the Christmas Star winter solstice, when our days began to grow longer and brighter. After 93 years of his sparkling blue eyes, sweet smile, and commanding presence, we have lost a true American patriot - a man of unassailable integrity, deep compassion, and abiding love for his family, friends, and country. Although his list of accomplishments is long and distinguished, Bob remained selfless and self-effacing throughout. He possessed that rare quality that allowed him to relate to everyone, including complete strangers, who inevitably came to adore him. He personified the forthrightness, genuineness, and humility that defines his generation - the Greatest Generation.

Bob was born Oct. 4, 1927 to Oscar Rankin Walters and Ethel Mae Kelley Walters in the former lumber-mill town of Wiergate, Texas. He graduated in 1944 from Jeff Davis (now Northside) High School in Houston. Immediately on graduation, Bob joined the U.S. Navy to fight in the Pacific Theatre in World War II. At the end of the war, he enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin with the aid of the G.I. Bill, becoming the first member of his family to earn a college degree. After observing Bob out-jump a seven-footer in intramural basketball, the legendary coach Clyde Littlefield invited Bob to join the Longhorn track team, where he went on to become a pole-vaulter and consensus All-American in the high jump in 1950, win the Outstanding Athlete Award at the Kansas Relays in 1949, and have the highest jump in the world in 1949 and 1950. In 2019, the University of Texas awarded Bob its Outstanding Track and Field Alumnus Award at the Texas Relays.

After graduating from The University of Texas, Bob by-passed the opportunity to join the 1952 Olympic Games as a competitor. Instead, he opted to begin his career as a pilot and distinguished officer in the United States Air Force, serving throughout the world for over 30 years. He was among the first to pilot the Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft. In the midst of his early career, he also earned a masters degree in political science from Middle Tennessee University while stationed at Sewart Air Force Base in Tennessee. His service to his country took him to over a dozen military bases throughout the world, including in France, Okinawa, Germany, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam (during the Vietnam War), and England. He also served stints at the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., specializing in Middle Eastern affairs. Later in his career, he served as Vice Commander of the 513th Tactical Airlift Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England, leading strategic NATO missions to protect the United States and its allies during the Cold War.

During one of his early assignments at Evreux Air Base in France, he met his first wife Judith Ellen Cavanagh (of Long Island, New York), who was attending the University of Munich while her father worked in Europe as a U.S. Civil Service Engineer. They married in 1956 when Bob was 29 and they had four children, Wendy Ellen Davis (of Fort Worth), Robert Charles Walters (of Dallas), Karen Kelley Hicks (of Magnolia, Texas), and Diana Jo Walters (of Houston).

After his first love passed away tragically and unexpectedly in 1980, he later married his second love, Charlotte Mae Braun Goss Walters (of Kenedy, Texas). Together, they seamlessly blended their brood of seven children into a single family. His other children include Delana Lee Smith (of Oklahoma City), Joseph Richard Goss (of Great Falls, Montana), and Charles Arthur Goss (of San Antonio). His devotion to family knew no bounds, and all of his children will love, revere, and cherish him eternally.

Bob's Texas roots stayed with him as he and his family traipsed around the world. He earned the nick-name "Hondo" from his fellow pilots due to his stature and likeness to John Wayne in the 1953 classic western movie. He even listened to Texas Longhorn football games on short-wave radio while stationed in Vietnam and England. He also never missed a chance to employ his wonderful voice to serenade family and friends with his repertoire of country and western classics.

His compass returned him home to Texas in the late 1970s after his tour of duty in England, landing him in San Antonio, where he ultimately retired. He then embarked on a voluntary second career teaching middle school math. He was one of the few who could make algebra seem easy. His talented hands could build most anything, including a floating dock and boathouse from scratch on Lake Medina, a dollhouse for his granddaughter that rivaled anything at FAO Schwartz, and his self-engineered smoker that produced some of the best mesquite-fired brisket in all of South Texas.

Bob pursued his ambitions without the need for attribution. He believed we are duty-bound to live up to our abilities. He appreciated that not all in life falls our way, but we are to move forward with resolution when it doesn't. He knew that the tight bonds of family allow us to survive challenge and to prosper. He knew to love unconditionally.

Bob was grateful for a full and complete life and was prepared to rest. We will miss him singing Glen Campbell's "Galveston." We will miss his wisdom, kindness, gentle strength, and love. We will miss those twinkling Walters blue eyes. We will miss The Colonel. Fly high, Dad.

Bob was preceded in death by his first wife, Judith Cavanagh Walters, in 1980 and his second wife Charlotte Braun Goss Walters in 2016.

He is survived by his sister, Jo Mary Walters Rice of Houston; his seven children and their spouses; 15 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the family will hold a private service at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio and an online memorial service at a later date.

To honor Bob's life and works, the family ask that donations be made in the name of the Robert O. Walters Scholarship at his beloved University of Texas at https://giving.utexas.edu (please include the Robert O. Walters Student Scholarship for Plan II in the "special information section) or by mail to The University of Texas, University Development Office, P.O. Box 7458, Campus Code A3000, Austin, Texas 78713-7458.