Walter Strycker

1928 - 2024

Walter Strycker
October 23, 1928 - January 16, 2024
Walter Pierce Strycker passed away peacefully on January, 16, 2024, at his home in Belvedere, Calif., with his family, lovingly by his side.
Once dubbed "The Most Interesting Man" (you've never heard of), Walter lived a most excellent, full life. Still sporting his movie star looks and twinkling smile, he was even featured in the Netflix Documentary, "Myth & Mogul: John Delorean" in his final, 95th year.
After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1951, Walter became an international sales exec during IBM's glory days. He went on to found the computer leasing company, Decimus, ran the engineering pollution control company, Wheelabrator Frye and Rust Engineering, in Pittsburgh, Penn., and became part of an investment group which ended up buying and eventually running Marie Callendar's restaurants. While steering operations there, Walt's executive team, holding him in the highest esteem, awarded him with the Spirit Award of Excellence. They presented him with a crystal eagle, representing his strength, endurance and keen vision.
In between his endeavors, Walter financed a couple of famous movies, invested in and helped run a small commuter airline in the British Virgin Islands and grew Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay in California's wine country.
One of Walter's proudest accomplishments was negotiating the contract between the British Government and the Northern Ireland Development Association, raising hundreds of millions of dollars from the British Government to build the DeLorean auto manufacturing plant in Belfast during the 1970's. At the time, Northern Ireland's unemployment rate was 40%. The DeLorean auto plant, which was located in the heart of the IRA rebellion between the Catholic and Protestant communities near Belfast, had two separate entrances and provided jobs for 2,000 employees. After proudly establishing jobs in that community, Walter made the difficult decision to walk away from the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) after discovering John DeLorean was funneling the British Government's money into his own Swiss Bank account. Walter, as CFO of DMC, made a full disclosure to its auditors, Arthur Anderson, told them about the fraudulent returns and resigned from the company.
Walter testified before the Grand Jury and DeLorean was indicted for fraud and tax evasion in Federal Court. Subsequently, Walter has been featured in many books, documentaries and even a stage play, about the multifarious DeLorean days.
Walt's biggest passion in life, besides his beloved dog, Winston and his family, was his golf game. One of Walt's most recent golfing buddies remarked, "Meet Walter once and you know he'd been a competitor every day of his 95 years, not just in golf but in life…better still he did it with a wry smile and and engaging, acerbic wit. He was one of a kind and I say that in the kindest sense of the word."
Walter is survived by his wife of 70 years, Constance Strycker; his daughter, Karen Strycker Roth and son-in-law, Mark Roth; his daughter, Jana Strycker, and son-in-law, Philip Wessells; and his three grandchildren, Quinton Wessells, Preston Wessells and Gregory Roth. Walt also loved spending time with his friends at The Family and the St. Francis Yacht Club. While we don't know if he will be able to fulfill his dream of coming back in his next life as the golf pro, Arnold Palmer, we know that Walter is up there, having so much fun playing golf with all of his buddies.