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Former Stifel executive, former U. S. Ambassador to Hungary and Webster University chair emeritus, George (Bert) Herbert Walker III, died on Monday, Jan. 20, at the age of 88.
Walker had a long list of accolades to his name, and served on various boards and nonprofit organizations, for decades.
He graduated from Yale University in 1953, and earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1956. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1956 to 1958 as staff judge advocate at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and as the Civilian Aid to the Secretary of the Army from 1974 to 1977.
After returning to St. Louis In 1958, he worked for G.H. Walker & Co., which was founded by his grandfather, and is now part of Merrill Lynch. Walker joined Stifel, Nicolaus & Company in 1976, and in 1979, became president and CEO.
He served on the boards of directors for Laidlaw International, Macroeconomics Advisors Inc., the Midwest Stock Exchange, the Western-Southern Life Insurance Company, and on the Regional Firms advisory committee for the New York Stock Exchange. In 2007, he became a general partner at the Danube Fund. He is the namesake of the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology at Webster University, where he served on the board of trustees for more than 40 years.
In 1992, Webster University’s board of trustees established the George Herbert Walker III Prize for Leadership Award, an endowed scholarship that recognizes a graduating senior who has demonstrated the most significant combination of academic achievement and leadership during their student years at Webster University.
“Bert Walker and Webster University have been inseparable for a long time – his vision, hard work, mentorship, friendship and support laid a foundation of Webster’s journey,” said Webster president Julian Z. Schuster. “His numerous contributions can be easily noted in Webster’s past, but more importantly, our university future will continue to be guided by Bert’s wisdom and generosity.”
His commitment to Webster’s success was evidenced in his generous support for students in initiatives from study abroad scholarships to the programs of the School of Business & Technology and the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts.
In 2001, Walker donated $1 million to Webster University. Then in 2005, because of his generous gift of $10 million to the school and University, Webster University’s School of Business was renamed the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology.
“The stories of great universities are known through those whose commitment advanced their missions and who used their voices to amplify their graduates’ successes. Bert Walker was such a man for Webster,” said Webster University chancellor Elizabeth (Beth) J. Stroble. “He was a vigorous champion for student leaders and for expanding Webster’s academic programs and services in ways true to our local and global missions. As a result, Webster College took the bold step of embracing university status in 1983, one of the many marks of leadership that sought broader horizons for Webster’s impact and reputation. We will always remember the generosity of Bert’s transformational gifts in the early 2000s, the impact of which endures in the name of the Walker School of Business & Technology. He will be greatly missed.”
While his cousin George H.W. Bush ran for president of the United States in 1992, Walker ran as the Republican candidate for Missouri’s Second Congressional Seat, but lost to fellow Republican Jim Talent. He would later serve on the board of the John McCain for Senate campaign in 1998, George W. Bush for president campaign in 2000, Bush-Cheney in 2004, Mitt Romney for president in 2012, and John McCain for president in 2016.
In 2003, his second cousin, President George W. Bush, appointed Walker as ambassador to Hungary, a position he held until 2006.
In St. Louis, Walker has served as chairman of Downtown St. Louis, Inc. (now the Downtown Partnership) and headed the Alexis de Tocqueville Society of the United Way of Greater St. Louis in 1994. He served as chair for the Missouri Council for a Better Economy, and was a board member of the Missouri Historical Society, serving as chairman from 1994 to1997. He was a board member of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, and commissioner and treasurer of the St. Louis Science Center.
He most recently served as chairman of the Better Together project in 2017 to 2019, a campaign to unite the city and county of St. Louis into a regional government.
He was a member of the advisory board of the Siteman Cancer Center, and on the board of the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund. He served on the board of the International Democracy Transition Center, headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Because of his social work, he received the Man of the Year Award from the St. Louis Variety Club in May 2011.
Walker is survived by his wife, Dr. Carol Banta Walker, eight children and 14 grandchildren. Services are pending.
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