Walter (FAA rated in power planes, hot air balloons, and sailplanes (gliders)) in his hot air balloon Big Sky, just before lifting off with American Bar Association president Wallace D. Riley and his son, who visited the Lakeland (Florida) Bar Association in 1984 while Walter was president. Under Walter’s leadership that year, the LBA became the most honored bar association in Florida Bar history with 4 first-place and 1 second-place awards in the Florida Bar’s five categories of competition for excellence. Moreover the American Bar Association accorded the LBA its first place award for most outstanding Law Day (Law Week) activities in America. Topping it off, Walter’s close Duke Law School friend and District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge (later Solicitor General) Kenneth Starr won the first place award from the ABA for the outstanding Law Day speech in America given as part of the LBA’s Law Day activities. Ken later was heralded as the finest appellate lawyer in America and served ably as Baylor’s president.