For the last 13 years, on this day, I think of my band teacher from Junior High (Belt Junior High): Jim and Rosemary Walters, loving parents of Jeffrey and Philip Walters, were killed tragically in a car accident on April 1, 2001, on their way to church. Jim was born on May 27, 1949 in Lancaster, Ohio, where he resided until he moved to the Washington metropolitan are in 1971. While in Ohio, he attended Lancaster High School and went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education at Ohio Wesleyan University. He then moved to Maryland to begin teaching. He received his Master’s degree in music education from the University of Maryland at College Park. It is there that he met his future wife, Rosemary during summer sessions at the university. He taught for 30 years in Montgomery County at Belt Junior High School, Tilden and Key Middle Schools until his sudden death in 2001. Rosemary was born in Washington, D. C. on October 21, 1948 and grew up in College Park, Maryland. She attended High Point High School in Beltsville and went on to receive her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education. She taught choral and general music at Robert Goddard and Greenbelt Middle Schools in Prince George’s County until the birth of her first son, Jeff. She served as the organist at Berwyn Baptist Church in College Park—her home church—then began playing at Wallace Presbyterian Church after she was married. Rosemary became the music director at Wallace upon the retirement of Charlton Meyer, her teacher, and served in that capacity as choir director, organist, youth choir director, and accompanist until her death. Jim and Rosemary were married in the University of Maryland Chapel on August 16, 1975, complete with a “twenty-one-gun salute” (a thunderstorm). They had two sons: Jeff, born June 2, 1979, and Philip, born April 15, 1982. They were nurturing parents and developed their sons’ love for the Lord and dedication to music. They died together, in each other’s arms, on their way to partake in two of the things they loved most in life: God and music.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:45:46 +0000
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