Ken Walker was a pipe-smoking giant of a man who touched the lives of thousands of Rhode Islanders regardless of their race, social class, or education. Professor, parole board chairman, basketball referee, coach, and mentor, he could mingle with bank presidents, question prison inmates or talk with high-school and college students with equal interest.
Dr. Kenneth Walker died last Tuesday. He had turned 88 on Dec.19. His funeral will be next Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the Faith Christian Center in Seekonk.
Ken grew up in East Providence and was a lifelong Townie. He attended local schools, left for Providence College, earned a bachelor’s degree in 1957, and returned to teach English and social studies and serve as a guidance counselor and assistant principal at Central Junior High, his school as a seventh grader.
Ken eventually earned a master’s degree in education from Rhode Island College and a doctorate in education from Boston University. For years he taught at Rhode Island College and later at Johnson & Wales University. In the late 1960s he worked with Project Upward Bound, a federal program for disadvantaged youth. During his 23-year career at RIC he specialized in urban education and improving the quality of education for low-income students. To generations of students he was “Doctor Walker”.
To generations of high-school and college basketball players, he was a no-nonsense referee. He started in 1963 and was the first black official to work a game in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League. Later, he worked college games. The Big East. The Atlantic 10. Have whistle. Will travel.
He married Gail Smith in 1955, and together they raised three children in East Providence.
I first knew Ken as a basketball referee. He would run the sideline and baseline for PC and Big East games at the Civic Center, as the downtown arena was known back in the day. Occasionally during a timeout he would come over to the press table, say hello, and ask how my wife was doing. Anne, an executive with the old Industrial National/Fleet Bank, had gotten to know Ken through various community activities. Also, Ken Walker knew Anne’s uncle, Oscar “Ken” Ohanian, who also had grown up in East Providence and had played football for the Townies.
At some point I learned that Ken Walker and his family had a summer place on Martha’s Vineyard, in Oak Bluffs, which for decades has boasted a strong African-American community. Having honeymooned on The Vineyard, we enjoyed sharing stories when the occasion arose. He loved to talk about lazy summer days playing golf on The Vineyard.
Ken Walker was a trailblazer. There were not many blacks walking around the Providence College campus in the mid-1950s, but that did not stop him. Years later he served on the President’s Council, and in 2008 the college established a scholarship fund in his name to benefit minority students.
Some years ago, when I was still writing for The Providence Journal, I interviewed Ken for a story I was doing on Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodger born 100 years ago who integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. I can still recall the emotion in his voice as he talked of the impact Robinson had on a young black man growing up in East Providence, Rhode Island. A young black man who, like Robinson, became a strong role model in the true sense of the phrase. A guy any guy would want to emulate.
In reporting Walker’s death, Amanda Milkovits of The Journal quoted men who knew Walker well. The Rev. Brian Shanley, president of Providence College. Thomas Verdi, Providence Police commander and former parole board member. Ed Cooley, PC basketball coach. Frederic Reamer, Rhode Island College professor and parole board member with Walker. They described him as a mentor, an icon, a true Friar, a compassionate man with a twinkle in his eye, a smile on his face and love in his heart.
“Walker wasn’t just respected,” Milkovits wrote. “He was revered. He was loved.”
That he was, and now Rhode Island is a little poorer after the passing of a pipe-smoking giant of a man from East Providence who touched the lives of thousands.