Walter Pickard Hayes

(Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired)

Mesa, AZ – Walter P. Hayes, 89, born in Beverly, Massachusetts (Ryal Side), died in the wee hours of August 22nd, 2019, of complications from a stroke. Walter was a graduate of Beverly High School where he was a linebacker on the football team, and from the stories he told, the bane of a few of his teachers’ existence. He was also a drummer in the Salem Drum and Bugle Corps.

Walt married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Watson, and was a husband and father before graduating from Colby College in 1952. He joined the Army shortly after graduation and began a 26-year career which took him around the world, opening his eyes and his heart to the many people he met along the way. Walter’s early tours included time in Austria, Italy, and Germany in the 1950’s.

Walter completed his M.B.A. from Lehigh University in June1960, and a month later left for Korea. He returned to teach Military Science at the University of Rhode Island, later attending the Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, KS. Walter became fluent in Arabic while attending the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, CA, before embarking on his first tour in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1967. Upon his return he and his family, which then included three daughters, moved to the suburbs of Washington D.C. where Walter worked for the Strategic Tactical Analysis Group (STAG) group in Bethesda, MD.

He was called to serve as the Rome Plow Battalion Commander in Vietnam in 1970. Upon his return, he was promoted to Colonel and worked at the Pentagon until 1974. During that time, Walter graduated from the U.S. Army War College. Walt did a brief stint in Terre Haute, Indiana, as a Professor of Military Science, heading the department at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. In 1976, Walter was assigned to the embassy in Saudi Arabia, then in Jeddah, where he served as Defense Attaché until his retirement in 1978. He stayed in Jeddah for a few years following retirement, while working for Saudi Arabian Parsons, Ltd.

Walter returned from the Middle East in 1983, rejoining his family in Punta Gorda, FL. He was a real estate agent at Sorrentino Realty for a brief time before returning to work for Parsons who was building the port city of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. It was at Sorrentino that he first befriended Gail Robinson, who would become his second wife many years later.

Eventually, Walter made his way to Mesa, AZ where he fully embraced retirement, spending extended summers in Chapala, Mexico and Dover, New Hampshire. Walter reunited with and married his beloved Gail in August 2010 , after both had lost their first spouses. They spent many happy years together and became members of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Mesa, AZ.

Walter enjoyed visits with his three daughters Lisa Hayes (John Ashak), Beth Christensen (Steve) and Kim Berger (Dave) and their families, including his four grandchildren, Jennifer Comeau, Casey Christensen, Andrew Hayes Berger and Samantha Berger, all of whom he loved dearly.

He was predeceased by his first wife, Ruth W. Hayes, brothers John and Donald, sister Arlene Christie, dear niece Lorraine Doucette, “brother” Gordon Webster, and many friends, who were like family.