Bob Dylan wrote 'How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man.' I'm not sure what metric should be used but Burl Joseph Walker, Sr. was a man among men. Born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and raised in Spencer, WV, he traveled all over America and found Joy in the journey. While Visiting Grandma Albert in Kalispell, Montana, he found a wife. Joining Karen Lee Richardson in Holy Matrimony began a journey of 55 years.
In the 1970s, he found a job at Dupont in Deepwater, NJ, as a rigger and started a family. In the 1980s, they moved to Ohio near his parents. He went back to Dupont in Parkersburg and continued to provide and thrive. In the early 1990s, we could count on him to be there at 6 am, after breakfast, reading the Bible and explaining what it meant and how to apply it to our lives. He loved it every time we got to the Book of Hebrews. Never settling for what is, but always looking forward to what is next. He became a trainer, and while sitting around the kitchen table, we learned about locking out equipment, tagging, and verifying it was truly off before working on machines. As we were learning Algebra, he was learning with us and passed us to become an Industrial Mechanic using trigonometry on the job every day at work.
When cancer came knocking, he was ready to go home, but God had a different plan. Miraculously, the Lord healed him completely at the Altar on a Sunday morning. Stage 4 Cancer became a springboard for early retirement and a decade of service in MAPS, building churches, and improving camps and Teen Challenge Centers as RV Volunteers before finally settling down and buying a home in Butler, MO, then downsizing into an apartment in Adrian to be near his church. Filling his 'Retirement' with renovations, remodels, and driving a school bus. Mr. 'Smiles' was his nickname with the children at Butler R-V because he always had a huge smile on his face.
Each season brought its challenges, including the final dance. Each season of joy was met with an understanding that the God that had saved him, spoke to him through His Word, audibly, guided his life with dreams and given him an extra 20 years, was preparing a place for him to enter eternity.
Burl is preceded in death by his parents, Burl Daniel Walker and Yvonne Maire (Albert) Walker. He is survived by his wife, Karen Walker; sons, Burl (Emma) Walker Jr. and Daniel (Tonia) Walker; honorary daughter, Alberta (Pastor Monday) Yeboah-Ohwofasa; grandchildren: Oliver Rex, Jedidiah Wain, Richard Leonard, Brian Joseph, and Dean Elliot; sister, Patricia Hamilton; ; and niece, Amy Jo Keel.
