Saturday, November 5, 2011

Bill Walters, BHS '62 1944-2011



Edward William "Bill" Walters, BHS '62
January 19, 1944 - September 30, 2011

Bill Walters, Class of 1962, passed away on Friday, September 30, 2011, in the hospital near his home in Makawao, Maui, Hawaii at age 67. Three days earlier, in the evening of September 27, Bill collapsed at his home from a massive heart attack. Everyone who had seen him earlier that day thought he looked fine. He was on life support for the three days in the hospital until his passing. Bill's girlfriend of over nineteen years, Akemi, who was also his business partner, was told by doctors that two of the arteries to Bill's heart were completely blocked/occluded. Bill's father died at about age 35 from heart trouble.

Bill had lived in Woodland Hills many years ago before moving to Ventura to be near some of the surfing locations that he surfed at. During those years he worked as a stock broker. Over twenty years ago he moved to Maui. There he and Akemi had their own business.

Bill Walters had survived several health problems in the past, including cancer of the esophagus. About ten years ago he had triple bypass heart surgery. Recently he had been scheduled for shoulder surgery, but during the presurgery tests it was found that he needed heart surgery once again. Before that took place he suffered the massive heart attack that took him. Akemi and Bill had recently been on a trip to Turkey and Italy, and he had no problems while traveling on that trip.

There was a beautiful ocean ceremony at the time that Bill's cremated remains were placed at sea near his home on Maui. Two canoes went out with the cremains while a friend blew a conch shell horn during the ceremony. Those had been Bill's wishes for the time of his death.

Besides Akemi, Bill is survived by a sister, Karen Madsen, BHS '67, who lives in California near the Colorado River and a niece, Kelly Baker of Ventura, California.

(Thanks to Alan Landros for providing this information;)

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