IN LOVING MEMORY OF
Melvin
Walters
July 20, 1935 – January 3, 2025
Obituary
Melvin E. Walters
July 20, 1935- January 3, 2025
How do you write of a man's life? How do you capture the nature, the spirit, the essence of a man? Dad was our father. Melvin was my husband. Mr. Walters was our teacher and mentor. Mel was my friend. He was a man of unending patience and good humor. He was a man who loved his life. He loved his wife. He loved his family. Melvin looked at the world with eyes of peace and a heart filled with goodwill. A man of humility and great charity. He asked for nothing more for himself than a good cup of coffee, and some cheese and sausage but he would have given you the shirt off his back if you were cold. One of his favorite sayings was simply "It can't be helped". He was accepting and compassionate looking the world with eyes of peace. Melvin will always be admired for his role as an educator in West Bend. Teaching at Barton and Badger was an accomplishment that filled him with constant joy. While shopping a stranger would stop and ask, "Are you Mr. Walters?" Whereupon Melvin would reply, "yes, and you were my student and I remember you." And he did. The measure of a man is not measured in dollars or possessions. It is measured by the number of lives you have touched. It is measured by those who remember you with fondness, grace, and love. Melvin was a rich man. Melvin grew up on a farm and in Mayville. After graduating high school, he entered the army and served with distinction during the Korean war. Using the GI bill Melvin became an educator. His first teaching job was in a one room schoolhouse teaching grades 1-8 using a wood stove as a heater, then for close to forty years he taught in the West Bend School district at Barton and at Badger. The number of lives that he touched cannot be counted. Melvin always stayed busy. He loved antiquing with his wife Shirley. He was a volunteer at Froedtert Hospital, the Washington County Historical Society, and the Full Shelf Food Pantry. He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church. Melvin was preceded in death by his parents Arnold and Ella, five siblings Dorothy, Betty, Gordon, Raymond, and Donald and his grandson Theodore Walters. He is survived by his sister Norma, his loving wife of 59 years Shirley Walters, children Jeffrey (Camille) Walters, Michael (Kimberly) Walters, and Jennifer Fleischman, grandchildren Mckenzie, Meghan, Alexander, Kelly, Jackson, and Henry, and great-grandchildren Wesley & Cohen, and Sophia. If our father had a personal philosophy, it would have been "It is our job as people to be kind and helpful." This is a very simple idea, but a tremendous vocation. To say these things and to live them are very different things. Our father was a great man. As a husband he was a loving compassionate partner. Our teacher was a long and positive influence on me and all my classmates. Our friend made me laugh and cry and I am a better person for knowing him. Melvin lived his life being kind, helpful, and caring. Melvin lived his life looking at the world with eyes of peace and a heart of love. He will be eternally cherished. He will be eternally missed. There will be a private service with military honors with the family he loved. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the West Bend Columns Scholarship Foundation.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Melvin Walters, please visit our flower store.
Services
Melvin Walters's Guestbook
Visits: 8
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the
Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors