by Tim Robinson

Walt Blair has Albert Einstein hair and a bristling intellectual curiosity. He would like to get an audience with Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, in Seattle to talk about space travel. For credibility Walt has rubbed working shoulders with the great Werner Von Braun (German scientist famous for working in highly secretive U.S. Missile program in the 60’s).

Now 90, Walt has lived a rich life.

 Born in Spokane to a working class family (dad was a welder), Walt was driving a car by age 10 and dreaming of learning to fly an airplane in the depression, before entering Cheney High School (class of '43). Once his academic standards were met, he was offered Navy aviation training but was rejected for sinus problems. For whatever reason, the U.S. Army was not that particular. They accepted Walt with little more than a sniff of a health check.

By the summer of 1943 he was in training camp learning to fire a variety of weapons, like a Browning automatic rifle, a Thompson sub machine gun as well as .45 caliber pistols. Months later, he landed in Europe to dodge bullets while fighting with elite forces of the 70th Division. "You have to hold the machine gun sideways or the barrel jumps up and down. Sideways allows you to spray right and left," Walt said with a grin. A champion marksman, Walt eventually became an Army weapons trainer. He transferred to the 91st Division slated for landing at Anzio, Italy in 1944. At the last minute the 363rd Division needed him to drive a truck and also wear a mine-detector pack near Naples for the next 18 months. Germany surrendered on what became known as V.E. Day. It was May 8th ( Walt's birthday) A great gift of good fortune. A very high number of soldiers were killed in the Battle for Anzio. Walt was on his way home.

After the War, Walt attended college. He wanted to go to the UW but it was too expensive, opting instead for Gonzaga U in Spokane where he grew up. After Walt graduated and needing work, Walt's dad decided to move.

The family settled in Kirkland where his dad found work welding for the Seattle shipyards.

Walt loved cars. He was working one afternoon at a local service station. A stranger dropped in with a problem. Walt assisted the visiting Chevrolet Motor Company rep with some engine problems. That turned into an offer to apply for work in Detroit. The heart of the auto industry.

Walt jumped at the chance to expand his knowledge of cars and make money too. It was not his destiny. "I did not like Detroit", Walt explained.

It was ninety-eight degrees with high humidity and that was at night!", he lamented. The bond with Seattle was strong. Walt made the long drive back home after his Detroit experience. 

 He landed a job at Boeing (1950) where he stayed 35 years, mostly working in that secretive missile program and where he met and worked with Werner Von Braun. 

By 1955, at age 30, he was renting a beach cottage on Alki for $65 a month including utilities. 
It was then Walt began looking for more permanent digs. He took day trips to Burien and south. He sometimes walked when he did not have his prized '34 Chevy. 

Burien was growing in those days. Three hardware stores, clothing shops a couple of banks and a feed store. Three Tree Point was more vacation than residential. The small store near the entrance to the beach was a popular spot. (see-Three Tree Point Arcadia publishing by Guy and Pam Harper with Doug Shadel) Walt recalls often launching his boat just west of the store.

After seven years of poking around the area, Walt and first wife Ellen settled in Gregory Heights. It was 1956. Daughter Wendy and son Wayne were raised in a spec home Walt purchased in Gregory Heights in 1962. 

Sitting today in the alcove of that same living room, Walt's story is about success as an engineer, family man, car collector, dreamer of ideas and lover of the arts. His second wife, Sally, is an accomplished painter. Together they attend community shows, Seattle Opera and plays at the 5th Avenue Theatre. They grow bamboo in their yard, complain about the Seattle tunnel project because "it will never be finished" and Walt yearns for the chance to help Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk make space travel a real possibility.