Walter Chamberlin

Walter loved to travel. His very first cross-country trip was from Connecticut to California...in his mother’s womb. He made his formal entrance into the world in the family home in Pasadena on April 2, 1920. While the doctor was in the kitchen sterilizing instruments for his birth, Walter’s very practical and self sufficient mother, called out “He’s here!” And that made the family complete: Mamá, Papá, sister Dorothy, and now Walter. Growing up, his parents instilled in him the need for kindness, compassion and consideration for others as well as honesty and integrity. These qualities stayed with him and are the reason people loved and admired him throughout his long life. At the age of five, Walter learned a priceless lesson. After being caught telling his mother a lie, she said to him “If you don’t tell the truth I can never believe anything you say”. This horrified him and it was then that he resolved to never tell another lie. The family home was often filled with the sounds of classical music. Walter embraced the genre and developed a deep connection with it as a young boy. One day a large wooden crate arrived at the house, sent from his Grandmamá. Inside they found, much to everyone’s delight, a Victrola Credenza and many boxes that contained a treasure trove of 12” records to be played on the windup turntable. Besides his love of listening to music, he also enjoyed playing the violin, piano and organ. His discovery and passion for the classics was a lifelong journey he shared with his family. In 1942, stirred by a deep sense of patriotism, Walter joined the California State Guard. In 1944 he was drafted into the army and trained as a medic, then sent to the Pacific Theater. The ship he was sailing on carried part of the invasion force headed for Japan. He never saw the horrors of war, because the timing of the fateful bombs which ended the war changed the mission to an occupation force. Upon arriving he was assigned to the military hospital in Osaka, where he was put in charge of the hospital communications systems. While in that position he met two of his dearest friends, Bill Bradley and Toshiko Nogami. He was having so much fun working with Bill that he volunteered to remain in the Army another six months beyond his required service. Bill and Toshiko later married and because of the depth of their friendship with Walter, the Chamberlin and Bradley families became very close, spending many Thanksgivings and Christmases together throughout the years. After the war, Walter returned to Pasadena and bought an army surplus Dodge Carryall, outfitted it with amateur radio equipment, and plenty of tools and supplies for camping, caving and river trips. Caving was especially intriguing to him and in 1948 he became a lifetime member of the National Speleological Society. Walter had an insatiable appetite to explore places that seemed unexplored, whether is was diving into a water-filled cave or blazing a trail through the roadless desert. That drive stayed with him his entire life. Walter found solace and meaning in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when he was a young man. He raised his family with the values of the church and devoted his life to serving the Lord. In 1953 he married the love of his life, Sally Bieler. Together they began their own family of three children, David, Linda and Alan. Later they added a sweet dog named Dexter. Walt always said that being a father gave him unparalleled joy and fulfillment. In later years he was blessed with three wonderful grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Although his parents were both accomplished fine artists, Walter was much more interested in the mechanics of how things worked. At an early age, always inquisitive, he found the telephone and the radio to be quite fascinating. So much so that when he was little, before he knew how things actually worked, he built a radio with knobs...powered by imagination rather than electricity. As he grew up he learned about how things actually worked and made friends with like minded individuals, many of whom became mentors. His career blossomed as he became a real electrical engineer doing everything from designing circuit boards for a color organ in 1950 to developing and testing the mass spectrometer that flew aboard the Viking spacecraft to Mars that gave us a detailed composition of the Martian atmosphere in 1976. In 1977, his dear friend Bill Bradley asked him to come work for him at the Los Alamos National Laboratory where he continued to apply his talents in mass spectroscopy and engineering until his formal retirement at age 70 and effective retirement at age 80. In his retirement years he found joy in sharing his passion for making liquid nitrogen ice cream using a technique he perfected in the 70’s. He used that skill to bring people together, making many new friends. In fact throughout his entire life he was compelled to make anyone and everyone he came in contact with happier. This often entailed the use of corny jokes but in nearly all cases he accomplished his goal. We are all happier in our own lives because he was a part of ours. Walter passed away peacefully on March 22, eleven days before his 99th birthday, surrounded by his loving family. Memorial services were held at the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1967 18th St, Los Alamos, NM 87544 at 11:00 AM, Monday April 1, 2019.