Wanda M. Walker's Obituary
Wanda Walker, an identical twin and fourth generation Californian born in San Diego in 1923, passed away on July 16, 2013. She was a resident of San Diego area most of her life and specifically Lakeside since 1948 and was very involved in her community, both Lakeside and greater San Diego.Dr. Walker was an educator most of her life beginning as an elementary teacher, becoming a school administrator and even substituting as an administrator after she retired. Teaching and learning (she was an avid reader) were among her passions. She was educated in San Diego schools, graduated from San Diego State in 1947, obtained a masters degree from University of Washington in music in 1948 and completed her formal education with a PhD in 1967 from California-Western University becoming the first woman to do so at that institution. During her career in education, she was the recipient of many honors and awards.Wanda belonged to many local organizations. She was selected by the Presidents’ Council of Women’s Service, Business and Professional Clubs as Woman of the Year for 1979 having been nominated by the Nu Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International for professional achievement and community service.Wanda also had a lifelong passion for music both performing and composing. Over the years she performed with a variety of orchestras and musical groups in the San Diego area playing viola. She also composed classical music performed by various local groups, and especially notable was a composition she wrote in 1939 at age 16 which was performed by a leading local string quartet on KFMB radio.Wanda was truly a renaissance woman being a person of great accomplishments and diverse interests. Her many talents and disparate pursuits included hunting, both sport and commercial fishing (she had a professional lobstering license), golf (she was a founding member of Singing Hills), sports, auto mechanics, painting and sculpture, philately, gemology, gardening (especially roses), raising and training dogs (especially rescue dogs), photography and travel. She traveled all over the world, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe, Norway to Australia and Japan to Canada. She loved to tell stories about her four trips to various places in Africa and expeditions to some of the more obscure parts of the South Pacific. Canada was particularly special as she and her husband built their cabin themselves far north in British Columbia and traveled there many summers. It became a gathering and vacationing place for many of the family. Their home in Lakeside also frequently became a gathering place for her many friends and family, and holidays often saw a large and lively group there.After retiring as an educator, Wanda volunteered many years at Grossmont Hospital Senior Resource Center. Service to her community was always important to her.Wanda loved donning western ware and frequently was seen wearing one of her many cowboy hats from her collection.In her twenties Wanda married local educator Elmer Walker who had been widowed with 4 young children. She willingly undertook the task of helping raise the children.Wanda was predeceased by her husband Elmer of 30 years and by two of her adopted children: Kathleen Stewart and Mary Quessenberry. She is survived by two of her adopted children: Sydney Walker of Riverside and Jessie Meacham of San Diego. In addition, she is survived by 9 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.Her funeral is being held at Greenwood Garden Chapel at Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary on August 4, 2013, with public viewing at 1pm and the service at 2pm. Private interment will be at a later date at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery.In lieu of flowers, we are suggesting that those who may wish to express their sympathy, consider contributing to one of Wanda’s favorite charities. Those include:1. Lakeside Historical Society, 9906 Maine Ave., Lakeside, Ca 920402. Lakeside’s River Park Conservancy, 12108 Industry Rd., Lakeside, CA 920403. Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO), c/o David Amos, 5150 Norris Rd., San Diego, CA 921154.if (!aa) var aa = { iframes : new Array(), random : function() { return Math.round(Math.random() * 10000000000); }, pageNum : Math.round(Math.random() * 10000000000), refresh : function(iframeId) { if (typeof(iframeId) != ‘undefined’) { var iframe = document.getElementById(iframeId); if (iframe) iframe.src = iframe.src.replace(/misc=[0-9]+/, ‘misc=’ + this.random()); } else { for (var i in this.iframes) this.refresh(this.iframes[i]); } } }; //no AJAX refresh for inline ads aa.adServer = ‘http://media2.legacy.com/’; aa.target = ” + ‘/3.0’ + ‘/5354.1’ + ‘/2172043’ + ‘/0’ + ‘/-1/size=30×1’ + ‘/adtech;’ + ‘alias=fh.dignitymemorial-11077.lifestory.30×1.1.1;’ + ‘target=_blank;’ + ‘key=’ + escape(‘ACS’) + ‘;’ + ‘kvopenextapp=’ + escape(‘1′) +’;’ + ‘kvcobrand=’ + escape(‘DignityMemorial-11077′) +’;’ + ‘kvpersonid=’ + escape(‘165929008′) +’;’ + ‘sub1=’ + escape(‘American Cancer Society’) + ‘;’ + ‘sub2=’ + escape(‘https://www.cancer.org/involved/donate/donateonlinenow/Legacy/index?dn=mem&fn=Wanda&ln=Walker’) + ‘;’ ; aa.src = aa.adServer + ‘addyn’ + aa.target + ‘grp=’ + aa.pageNum +’;misc=’ + aa.random(); document.write(“”); document.write(“”);–San Diego, 1710 Webster St., Oakland, CA 94612-3448
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