Frank Walter, surveyor, engineer, development advocate, dies at 91
Frank Walter, a land surveyor and civil engineer who had a hand in planning and designing scores of Tuolumne County projects, died at age 91 late last year.
Walter passed away on Dec. 31 at a care home in the Redding area, where members of his family live.
In a Sonora-based practice that spanned a half century, Walter helped engineer and plan the Mono Village, Timberhills and Junction shopping centers, the Chinese Station industrial park and lumber mill, the Ultrapower co-generation plant and the Blue Mountain Minerals quarry. He plotted the route and design of Greenley Road in the 1970s, and many years later helped plan the Greenley Road Skate Park.
He had a hand in hundreds of Tuolumne County projects over the years and did work in Calaveras and Mariposa counties, as well.
Walter was also a colorful, outspoken advocate of numerous commercial and residential proposals at hearings before the Tuolumne County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.
“Frank was an unforgettable character,” said Bev Shane, a retired county planner and community development director who saw Walter speak at scores of zoning and permit hearings. “He was a persistent and effective advocate for his clients.”
When Walter took that podium, reporters knew he would be talking for a while. But, with pens poised, they also knew he would likely furnish them with colorful quotes.
And, at least until smoking was banned at local public meetings, he would use his trademark cigar to help make points.
“He was the smartest person I’ve ever met,” said John Andersen, a land surveyor who worked with Walter for decades. “He was very well read and was interested in a wide range of subjects.”
Since his childhood, Walter was an avid reader who favored science and history. “He could read several books a day,” said Andersen. “And he once read a multiple-volume encyclopedia from cover to cover.”
Walter was also very particular about spelling, and would admonish less able colleagues that “you’ll never get to heaven unless you can spell.”
Frank Walter also mentored many engineers and surveyors who worked with him at his office over the decades.
Among them was Duke York, who was a colleague of Walter’s for more than 20 years before going to work for Tuolumne County.
“I’d describe his teaching style as the Socratic method,” remembers York, who went on to become the county’s deputy roads superintendent. “I’d ask advice, and he’d come back at me with one question, then another until I’d finally get the idea.”
Sometimes learning was hands-on: Once Walter brought York along to examine a failing sewer treatment system. “Frank gave me directions, but I was the one in the middle of it all,” said York. “On an inflatable raft.”
When the job was done and the effluent problem solved, Walter thanked York and suggested they go out to lunch. “Out to lunch??” exclaimed his sopping assistant. “I need a shower.”
Walter could be a polarizing figure: A relentless advocate of growth during an era when many county residents favored restrictions, his comments often drew groans at public hearings.
“He was often very critical of the Planning Department, calling us Nazis and the like,” remembers Shane.
“He believed government had its place,” added Anderson. “But he thought the burden it put on development was just too much.”
During a packed 1979 hearing on a proposed temporary moratorium on major Tuolumne County projects, Walter complained that things were already tough enough on local developers. After a lengthy discourse at the podium, he delivered his own barbed version of the Planning Department’s motto:
“If it’s easy, we will make it difficult. If it’s difficult, we will make it impossible. But it will all take time.”
Shane added, however, that Walter was knowledgeable, helpful, had good insights and often helped the Planning Department draft ordinances.
Russell Francis Walter was born on Jan. 11, 1929, to Alfred and Mary Walter in Omaha, Nebraska. He is survived by one of his twin sisters, M. Louise Sullivan. The other twin died in 1992. He is also survived by three nieces (Linda, Diane and Karen), and by a nephew, Steve.
Walter was married for several decades, but he and wife Margie — with whom he lived in Mono Vista — were later divorced and had no children.
Walter was drafted into the Army in 1950. After his hitch, he worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in the Bay Area for two years. Then he was hired by the City of Berkeley for a stormdrain and sewer-line project.
Walter enrolled at and later graduated with an engineering major from UC Berkeley. He earned his land surveyor’s license in 1962 and his civil engineer’s license in 1964.
Told by fellow surveyor Dave Clark about an engineer-wanted ad he had seen while driving through Sonora, Walter responded, applied, got the job in ‘64, then took Berkeley colleagues Clark and John Andersen with him to Tuolumne County.
Thus, with General Engineering, he began a career that spanned 51 years — most of it in offices on Sonora’s Stewart Street. Over the years, his firm became Jorgensen-toll-a-day Engineers (1968-1987), Frank Walter and Associates (1987-2009) and Land and Structure (2009-2015). After working part time for a few years, Walter retired to the Redding area in 2015.
Over his decades on the job, he designed and engineered water and sewer systems, parcel and subdivision maps, roads, bridges, storm drains, retaining walls and more. Among those who worked with and learned from Frank Walter were surveyors Ed Shefter, Richie James, Jim Jordan, Fred Wilkie, Bob Ozbirn and Stan Kirkwood, as well as civil engineers Jerry Johnson, Jeff Sperry, Zach Garman, Kevin Quigley and John Pedri Jr.
Walter also taught a Columbia College class in land surveying in the 1970s.