Dan Walker (politician)
| Dan Walker | |
|---|---|
Walker greeting constituents during the Bud Billiken Parade (1973). Photo by John H. White.
|
|
| 36th Governor of Illinois | |
|
In office January 8, 1973 – January 10, 1977 |
|
| Lieutenant | Neil Hartigan |
| Preceded by | Richard Ogilvie |
| Succeeded by | James Thompson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 6, 1922 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Died | April 29, 2015 (aged 92) Chula Vista, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Roberta Dowse (1947–1977) Roberta Nelson (1979–1989) Lillian Stewart (1990s–2015) |
| Alma mater |
United States Naval Academy Northwestern University |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 United States
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Navy
|
| Years of service | 1940–1941 1945–1947 1951 |
| Battles/wars |
World War II Korean War |
Daniel J. "Dan" Walker (August 6, 1922 – April 29, 2015) was an American lawyer, businessman and Democratic politician from Illinois. He was the 36th Governor of Illinois from 1973 to 1977. He was raised in San Diego and served in the Navy as an enlisted and an officer during World War II and the Korean War. He moved to Illinois between the wars to attend Northwestern University School of Law and entered politics there in the 1960s.
Walker was perhaps best known for walking the state of Illinois in 1971 during his candidacy for governor and for being an outsider to Illinois machine politics. This resistance to the machine ended in a rare primary election defeat as an incumbent governor in 1976. His post political career was marked by high living, but marred by a guilty plea to bank fraud and perjury at the peak of the late 1980s savings and loan crisis. After a year and a half in federal prison, Walker retired to the San Diego metro area and authored several books until his death in 2015.
Walker was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Virginia May (Lynch) and Lewis Wesley Walker, who were both from Texas. He was raised near San Diego, California and was valedictorian when he graduated High School there in 1940. He joined the Naval Reserve while still in high school, serving on a four pipe destroyer during the summers. His college plans at San Diego State College were interrupted when he was called to active duty in 1940 and served as an enlisted man on a minesweeper out of Point Loma, San Diego. In 1941 he took an exam to become an officer ranking fifth out of over three thousand that were tested. He was attending the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Norfolk when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He graduated the United States Naval Academy in 1945 and would later be the second governor of Illinois to graduate from Annapolis. After that he served as a naval officer near the end of World War II. He was recalled to the Navy during the Korean War and was communications officer on USS Kidd (DD-661). Walker moved to Illinois to attend Northwestern in 1947. A 1950 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, Walker served as a law clerk for Chief Justice of the United States Fred M. Vinson, and as an aide to Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II.
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