Saturday, November 8, 2008
Walter B. Chambers Jr., 89, a retired chief of emergency planning for the U.S. Maritime Administration, died Oct. 24 at his home
in Silver Spring of complications from a fall at his home in April. Mr. Chambers began his federal career in 1936, while still in
high school, as a messenger with the U.S. Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corp., which was part of the U.S. Maritime
Commission.
He stayed with the agency, which later folded into the Maritime Administration, for 38 years, retiring in 1974.
He was a U.S. delegate to NATO's Planning Board for Ocean Shipping from 1969 to 1974.
Walter Benjamin Chambers was born in Washington and graduated from Western High School in 1940. He served in the U.S.
Merchant Marine during World War II.
He was a member of the Christ Episcopal Church in Kensington and Argyle Country Club in Silver Spring.
His wife of 50 years, Wilda Taylor Chambers, died in 1989.
Survivors include two daughters, Judith L. Braddy of Rockville and Nancy J. Gouge of Ocala, Fla.; five grandchildren; and 14
great-grandchildren.
-- Lauren Wiseman