Husband Lewis Walker, Jr. 1
Born: 25 Jun 1881 - Meadville, Crawford Co, PA 1
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Died: 11 Feb 1935 - Keystone Heights, Clay Co, FL 2
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Father: Col. Lewis Walker (1855-1938) 3
Mother: Susan Adelaide Delamater (1859- ) 4 5
Marriage: 11 Dec 1911 - Meadville, Crawford Co, PA 2
Wife Martha Stowe Gill 2 6
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Father: William Gill (1842/1844-1885) 7 8
Mother: Blanche S. Stowe ( - ) 6
Children
1 M Lewis Walker III 2
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2 M Robert Gill Walker 2
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General Notes: Husband - Lewis Walker, Jr.
He attended the Meadville public schools in his youth. After his graduation from high school he studied for one year at Allegheny College and then entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1903. The first twelve years of his active career were devoted to the real estate and brokerage business in Pittsburgh as an associate of R. C. Hall, under whom he received a thorough business training and acquired a broad background of experience extremely useful to him in his later responsibilities. Meanwhile, his father, after many discouragements over a long period of years, had brought the slide fastener to a degree of perfection which promised to make it commercially successful. In 1913 the Hookless Fastener Company was organized and in 1915, Lewis Walker, Jr., joined his father in the management of the company, whose plant and headquarters were in Meadville. Leaving immediately for New York as field representative of the company, he organized the sales department of the company, which operated under his direction on the basis of the fundamental sales policies which he laid down. In 1915 few manufacturers had heard of the slide fastener and fewer still were interested. Earlier types had proved of uncertain reliability, and the whole weight of past tradition had to be overcome before a manufacturer could be persuaded to try the new type of fastener for his product. It was Mr. Walker's task to overcome this reluctance to experiment in order that results might have a chance to speak for themselves. The sales policies which he initiated were designed to do just that. Slowly at first and then with cumulative momentum the volume of business grew and in the 1920s the company entered upon its first great period of expansion. Where sales were made at first in hundreds or thousands of units, they are now made in the millions, an indication not only of the utility of the slide fastener, but of a brilliantly conceived and executed sales program, carried out in close collaboration with manufacturing and engineering departments which spent endless time in adapting the slide fastener to the needs of new customers.
During his latter years in New York, Mr. Walker was joined by his brother, Wallace D. Walker. In 1919, because of the company's expanding operations, he returned to Meadville to become assistant to his father, president of the company. Subsequently, as assistant to the president and vice-president, he had a major role in the management of the company until failing health at the close of his life forced him to relinquish some of his responsibilities. An enterprising spirit, combined with clear vision and sound judgment were his salient characteristics as a business executive. All through the period of remarkable growth which brought the Hookless Fastener Company undisputed dominance in its field, he participated in the direction of the organization and continued as vice-president and director, as well as a large stockholder in the company, until the close of his career.
To associates and acquaintances, Mr. Walker was known as a man without pretense, quiet, rather retiring and a lover of the out-of-doors, to which he turned for relaxation and recreation. To his fellow-townsmen in the Meadville community he was also known for his enlightened public spirit, typical of his family, and for a generosity which found expression in numerous philanthropies, both public and private. On repeated occasions he gave anonymously to the useful institutions of his community, and scarcely a week went by that he did not extend a helping hand to some family in need and so unostentatiously that few were aware of his giving. Mr. Walker was a member of the Iroquois Club and the Meadville Country Club, both at Meadville; the University of Pennsylvania Chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity; and the Congregational Church. [HNP, 16]