Walter Anderson

DMS General
#21

I too miss Walter. I had many conversations with him and found him to be an incredibly bright, passionate and most of all helpful maker. He was generous with his time and his resources. Many of us have benefited from his teaching. He taught me to make a Michigan Mighty Mite. Build a radio transmitter class

Although controversial at times Walter was always engaging and most of the time very enlightening. I believe he could argue either side of an argument just to get people talking.

I like so many miss him around the space and, of course, on talk. RIP Walter.

1 Like
#22

Many of you do not know that Walter donated all of his Amateur Radio equipment to the Dallas Makerspace. Once the Electronics Lab moves into the new area, there will be a fully equipped Amateur Radio bench that will be the envy of any Ham Radio Operator.

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#23

I miss Walter as well. He cared greatly about DMS and gave alot of his time and energy to the space. He was a wealth of knowledge and always learning something new then teaching what he had learned.

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#24

Best class I took at DMS. Walter was even extremely patient with us winding coils (yes that Walter). He was impeccably prepared. You could tell he was enjoying the process.

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#25

LOL, my biggest teaching with Walter was on the awesome rotary sharpening setup he bought from tormac. Probably spelled that wrong. I put the finest edge and hollow grind on a POS $0.15 pocket knife. The knife didnā€™t even want to stay closed as I found out when I cut the pocket out of my jeans thanks to the sharpening.

So many Walter stories. Even after he passed I remember hanging with @Gimli talking about helping clean up some stuff in his house and Russell and @artg_dms were joking about Artā€™s mouth tasting like pennies when in the bathroom. Seems Walter had appropriated some pretty nasty chems for one of his planned future projects.

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#26

I think Walter would fully embrace the expansion plans and all the possibilities it can bring. I also think he would be very disappointed in all the rant and rave over NDAs. Opportunities missed and extra costs incurred. If itā€™s not explicitly prohibited in our rules, bylaws, etc. then whatā€™s the problem? Walter dealt w/ city government, city council and contractors and NDAs were ho-hum everyday thing. Pay attention to the details and move on.

Walter put together a chem lab in the bathroom. Science got the glassware and chemicals. They advised me not to box up the acids and alkalies together. Oh why not? Transporting all of it to DMS was interesting. I could see getting pulled over on one of the toll roads and being asked " Why are you in such a hurry? Interesting stuff. What is it? Where are you taking it? etc.".

Then there were the firearms. I remember visiting him at the hospital and he requested that I round up all of the firearms and remove them from the apartment. He paused and looked at me with a grin and said ā€œThey all have a full clip and one in the chamberā€. Good to know. Having not handled firearms in a long while and not wanting to risk ā€œentertainingā€ the neighbors, I reached out to Hatchers and Russell offered to help in rounding up and unloading everything. Walter had built a beautiful AR. The lower was finished at DMS before all the rules and laws changed. He reported that he had taken it to a range and it was very accurate - despite his eyesight.

And thereā€™s so much more.

6 Likes
#27

Thanks for sharing Art,

Iā€™m not sure there is anything in this world that Walter fully embraced. I also know he hated any kind of denial of the membership from having access to information. As we both fought together on those topics.

Reminds me of the Motley Crew of Allen, Walter, and I having the meeting with the DMS lawyer, just to have the Lawyer stone wall us. I believe we were trying to figure out the limits of the bylaws and the ability to notify members for membership action against a decision by the BOD.

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#28

I miss Walterā€¦
Iā€™m all alone now. :cry:

Russell Ward

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