It has been said when God made Dick Walton, He broke the mold. A man of integrity, he was brilliant, kind, generous, humble and had a grateful heart, lived with Christ-centered wisdom and wielded a rapt wit. This gentle giant and quintessential southern gentleman, James Richard (Dick) Walton, entered into eternity with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Friday morning, Sept. 19, 2014, at Brookdale Place Assisted Living in Birmingham, Ala., after a lengthy illness. He was 82 years old.

Dick was born Dec. 13, 1931, in LaFayette,
Chambers County, Alabama. Although he was born
during the Great Depression, Dick often said he
wouldn't change a thing about his childhood, which
included farm chores and gardening, caring for his
horse and dog, working as a grocery store clerk at
Tate & Co., serving as a page in the Senate of Alabama
in 1943 and 1945 and being lifetime best
friends with his older brother, Billy.

Dick graduated from LaFayette High School in
1949, with many honors. He entered Vanderbilt
University, where he played defensive end on the
varsity football team, on athletic scholarship, and
was all conference his sophomore year. He was also
in Delta Kappa Epsilon social fraternity. In 1951,
he entered the Air Force to serve his country during
the Korean Conflict. While he was at Lackland
Air Force Base, he attended classes at Trinity University,
and when he was stationed in Washington,
D.C., where he was assigned in the Office of Special
Investigations, he also continued his education
at George Washington University. after years of
military service, he returned to Vanderbilt, where
he graduated in 1955, with a bachelor of arts degree,
with a political science major and a business
administration minor. After graduating from Harvard
Law School in 1958, he worked in general
practice of law with the firm of Hutcheson, Taliferro
and Hutcheson in Houston, Texas, where he
met the love of his life, Phyllis Anne Phair, whom
he married in 1960.

In August of 1962, he brought his young family
to the Chattahoochee Valley in West Point, where
he became first legal counsel and later vice president
of personnel and public affairs at West Point
Manufacturing Company. His career there was
highlighted by guiding WestPoint Pepperell as it
became a publicly traded company on the New
York Stock Exchange. In 1974, he moved his family
to Birmingham, Ala., where he opened the Alabama
branch of Atlanta-based firm, Constangy,
Brooks & Smith, with a ground-breaking specialty
of representing management in labor relations. He
guided and advised companies nationwide on how
to keep unions at bay with Christian principles of
treating people right. After he retired in 1999, he
engaged fully in tending his beautiful and prolific
vegetable garden and volunteering his construction
talents for Workers for Christ through Briarwood
Presbyterian Church, where he and Phyllis
were active members of the Deeper Life class.

Dick was a Renaissance Man with an acute appreciation
for music and literature, especially poetry,
which he often quoted at length. His love of
music was expressed in many ways throughout his
life. He was the organist and pianist at his church,
when he was 17, and won the Alabama State Beta
Club talent show in 1948 singing with his guitar.
Just for fun, he sang barbershop music with "The
Quarternotes" in the 1960s and early 1970s and
sang in the church choir at West Point First United
Methodist Church and Mountain Brook Presbyterian
Church. We can't help but think of him, when
we hear his recording of his favorite musical group,
The Mills Brothers.

An Eagle Scout in 1945 and recipient of the Distinguished
Eagle Scout Award more than 25 years
later, he followed the principles of the Boy Scout
Oath of doing "my best to do my duty to God and
my country, help other people at all times, to obey
the Scout Law and to keep myself physically
strong, mentally awake and morally straight." And
literally, until his dying day, he fulfilled the Scout
Law of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,
courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave,
clean and reverent. Dick was loved by those from
all walks of life. His amazing people skills and
pleasant demeanor touched all whom he encountered.

Dick is survived by his wife of 54 years, Phyllis
Anne Phair; three children, Katherine Elizabeth
(Mrs. William J. McCauley) of Orchard Park, N.Y.,
Allison Walton (Mrs. Dale S. Irving) of West Linn,
Ore., and James Richard Walton Jr. (Molly
Phillips) of Birmingham; grandchildren, Harrison
Scott Gilbert, Hannah Beth Gilbert, William Walton
McCauley (Will), Hope Phair Gilbert, Kristin
Joanna Walton and James Richard Walton III
(Trace.) He also leaves a niece, Marianne Walton
Terry of Mobile, Ala. and a nephew, William Ora
Walton III (Trip) of Montgomery, Ala., and former
son-in-law, Michael Scott Gilbert (Scotty) of West
Linn. Dick was preceded in death by his parents,
Judge Will O. Walton Sr. and Lynda Ruth Tatum,
and his brother, William O. Walton Jr.

Dick's legacy of faith, family and friends will be
remembered by all with whom he shared his life
so graciously. All who knew him were enriched and
blessed, and he will be greatly missed.