John T. Walker

October 4, 1944 – September 8, 2026

John Thomas Walker, known to his friends and family as Lobo,

was also known as Tom or Tommy. Always a gentle soul, Lobo is now at peace after a brief illness in Buffalo General Hospital.

Lobo’s early years were filled tinkering with electronics. He started his own radio station in his attic during high school. Wiring a 20-block radius in the heart of Buffalo, he ran his W.A.N.D. radio station for over two years. He also would facilitate shows in the family’s attic and on their garage roof.

Lobo served in the Infantry in Viet Nam and was stationed on a refrigerated barge in Cam Ranh Bay. He was honorably discharged in 1968. Later he became a sound man for rock and roll bands in San Francisco. There he assisted friends in putting on musical shows in an old warehouse.

He spent many summers and falls at the family’s beach house on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie and returned to Buffalo in 1990 to help care for his aging parents.

Living alone for most of his life, Lobo was a private and quiet person. He expressed himself through his generosity, especially opening up the summer home to friends and family.

Lobo is predeceased by his parents Lorna P. and William H. Walker II, his sister Mary Walker Oshei, and his niece Estelle Oshei Mahony. He is survived by his sister Lornie of Washington State, her husband Tom Craighead, nephews Jameson and Alex Craighead and great nephews Gunnar and Miles Mahony.