Passing of a Personal Hero
Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:42 pm
Greetings All -
This past weekend I received a call from the daughter of a dear friend to tell me that her Father, Walt Kurzawa, had passed away due to complications from a fall a few weeks earlier. Walt had lost his wife last Fall while still living in the DFW area and had moved up to St. Louis. We had lunch about a month ago and I was about to call him to set up another lunch when his daughter called with the sad news.
Walt flew B-26 Marauders as a flight instructor in WWII flying primarily out of Del Rio, TX. He had well over 2000 hours in the B-26 without so much as scratching an airplane he flew. After the war, he went to work for Bell Aviation and after a year or so, moved onto Grand Prairie, Texas and worked the rest of his career with Vought.
I always cherished the time I was able to spend with him and admired what he had done and the humility in which he would discuss it. Though he was never assigned to a war theatre, he ran many of the same risks and then some that those who were shot at. He was proud of what he had done without ever being boastful about it.
He will be sorely missed..... Mark
This past weekend I received a call from the daughter of a dear friend to tell me that her Father, Walt Kurzawa, had passed away due to complications from a fall a few weeks earlier. Walt had lost his wife last Fall while still living in the DFW area and had moved up to St. Louis. We had lunch about a month ago and I was about to call him to set up another lunch when his daughter called with the sad news.
Walt flew B-26 Marauders as a flight instructor in WWII flying primarily out of Del Rio, TX. He had well over 2000 hours in the B-26 without so much as scratching an airplane he flew. After the war, he went to work for Bell Aviation and after a year or so, moved onto Grand Prairie, Texas and worked the rest of his career with Vought.
I always cherished the time I was able to spend with him and admired what he had done and the humility in which he would discuss it. Though he was never assigned to a war theatre, he ran many of the same risks and then some that those who were shot at. He was proud of what he had done without ever being boastful about it.
He will be sorely missed..... Mark
Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:26 pm
A loss of another member of the Greatest Generation.
Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:50 pm
I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences to you and the family.