Doctor John Mercer Walker, Senior was an American physician and investment banker.
Background
Walker was the fifth of six children of banker and businessman George Herbert Walker and his wife Lucretia Wear, daughter of James H. Wear. In 1939, he married Elsie Louise Mead, daughter of George Houk Mead, president of the Mead Corporation.
Education
Doctor Walker"s older sister Dorothy married President Bush"s father Senator Prescott Bush) Walker attended The Hill School and later Yale University, where he lettered in football, baseball and squash, was a member of Skull and Bones, and graduated in 1931. In 1936, Walker graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and went on to his residency at Roosevelt Hospital.
Career
During World World War II he served as a major in the United States Army in Europe. Walker had a private practice until he was diagnosed with polio in 1950. A skilled athlete and golfer, he would eventually need a wheelchair.
In 1952, he joined Memorial Hospital (now part of Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center) as a clinical assistant in surgery and remained with the institution for 25 years, serving as president from 1965 to 1974.
In 1953, future President Bush"s daughter Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush was diagnosed with leukemia. A local doctor advised them that treatment was futile, but Walker helped her get admitted to Memorial Sloan–Kettering.
She lived another six months and died shortly before her fourth birthday. He was a great cancer surgeon, who had been stricken with polio.
A strong and purposeful manitoba
I told him of our local doc"s advise and he said "You have no choice - none at all - you must treat this child. You must do all you can to keep her alive" and he went on to tell me of the strides in the field and of the importance of hope. So we treated her, and we watched her die before our eyes, but we also saw the wonders of remission and the dedication of the nurses and doctors, and we saw progress and we knew his advice was right.
Six months later when it was all over - I thought back with gratitude for this sensible advice.
Walker had a second career as an investment banker. Brown & Sons. In 1971, he retired to a farm in Easton, Maryland which for two decades he ran profitably for a third career.
He spent summers with his extended family in Kennebunkport, Maine. In 1989, President Bush appointed Walker"s eldest son District Judge John M. Walker, Junior. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Besides, Johnny"s as well qualified as anyone else for the position.".
Membership
A member of the prominent Bush-Walker family, he was a maternal uncle of United States President George Heriot-Watt University Bush.