By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
Tribune Managing Editor
KEYSER – He was a retired chemistry teacher, a World War II veteran, and the first park naturalist in the state of West Virginia.
He was the driving force behind the Faith in Action Food Pantry, and spent much of his “spare” time transporting those without a ride to doctor's appointments and to the grocery store. At 90, he was older than most of the people he helped out.
Above all else, however, Harold Walters of Keyser was “a  gentle man and a gentleman.”
That is how friend and fellow volunteer Sheila Golden described Walters after hearing the news of his death Friday morning.
“He did so much for this community, and he did it in such a quiet and unassuming way,” she said.
“He will definitely be missed.”
“He was my best buddy,” fellow teaching retiree Tom O'Connor said.
“We taught together at Keyser High School. He was one of the best teachers I was ever associated with.”
Ironically, although they didn't know it at the time, O'Connor and Walters were both serving their country as young men at

(See WALTERS P. 8A)
 Saipan during World War II.
“He flew in a B-29 bomber and I was infantry,” O'Connor explains. “After we got to know each  other, we'd kid each other. I'd say, 'Harold, if i wasn't for us guys on the ground, you wouldn't have had an airstrip to land on.' And he agreed.”
Walters and O'Connor got to know each other when Walters accepted a teaching job at KHS a couple of years after O'Connor started there. Their friendship grew and for a short while they even became the broadcast voices for KHS basketball.
Since retirement, they, along with their wives, made sure they got together at least once a week for lunch or some other activity.
“He never stopped,” O'Connor said of the active retiree. “He was always doing something.”
Friend and neighbor Charlotte Hott called Walters “a driving force in the community.”
Crediting him for keeping the Faith in Action Food Pantry going, Hott said he was “a good liaison person with the pantry and the Boy Scouts. They were always willing to do a food drive or deliver food for him.”
He also got several groups at Potomac State College, including the baseball teams, involved in helping out at the pantry, as well as the community service workers from the Mineral County Day Report Center.
“We've got to keep that torch going,” Hott said. “There is such a volume of people out there needing help.”
Throughout his life, Walters was always the teacher.
Unknown to many who knew him in his later years, Walters had spent part of his early career at Blackwater Falls State Park, where he served as the first park naturalist in the state. Borrowing an old slide projector and a record player, he conducted numerous nature programs which served as the catalyst for similar programs at Blackwater and other state parks over the years.
In Summer 2007, he was honored for his efforts at Blackwater with the naming of the new Harold S. Walters Nature Center.
He also often shared his experiences during World War II, speaking to various organizations and being a regular participant in the annual “World War II Remembered” program held at the Keyser American Legion.
His life was not all about work, however.
Walters was an avid bowler, and just last December his friends and teammates from the Seniors Mixed League at Rainbow Lanes surprised him with a party for his 90th birthday.
In fact, he was on his way to bowl when he fell at his home earlier this week. Friends said he passed away early Friday morning following surgery.
“On behalf of the council and myself, I would like to offer our condolences,” Keyser Mayor William “Sonny” Rhodes said Friday.
“What a great force he has been in this community for years and years. He will really be missed. He was a great person.”
Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 11 a.m. at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Keyser.