Robert S. Walt

Robert S. Walt, 61, died on May 7, 2010 at home after a six-year battle with cancer. A native of Berkeley, CA, Mr. Walt was a graduate of Kailua High School in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii. Mr. Walt received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles and a law degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. He also is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. After serving as a lawyer in the City of San Francisco Public Defender Office, he served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Texas Attorney General's Office, where he headed the capital litigation section. He later served in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office and as an attorney in the enforcement division of the Texas Department of Insurance. As a lawyer, he argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and numerous state district courts. He retired from the Insurance department in 2009 due to cancer. Mr. Walt also has been proprietor of Walt Vineyards in Redwood Valley, California, since 1992, when he took over the family venture. Mr. Walt is survived by his wife, Kathy; beloved step-children Colleen Fair of Richmond, TX, and Matthew Fair of Missouri City, TX; daughter-in-law Cassandra Fair; and granddaughters Kimberly and Madison Fair. He also is survived by his sisters and brothers-in-law, Ambassador Kathryn Hall and Craig Hall of Dallas, TX, and Rutherford, CA; and Pamela Chauve and Georges Chauve of Paris, France, and Moscow, Russia; sisters-in-laws and brothers-in-law Pat and Jim Wentworth of Fairfield, CA; Betty and Mike Wilson of Pickerington, OH; Marge Redmond and partner Liz Lottes of Columbus, OH; and Michael Redmond of Palo Alto, CA; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert S. and Dolores Newbold Walt. Visitation will be held from 6-8pm on Monday, May 10th at Weed Corley Fish Funeral Home at 3125 North Lamar, Austin, TX 78705. Funeral services will be held the next day, same location, at 11am followed by interment in Austin Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made for colon cancer research to the MD Anderson Cancer Center or the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.