Fred Walker's Passing

[hollenway]

I'd like to suggest that the membership remember Fred with a card to Erma, his wife.

Address:

The Family of Fred Walker
13115 Log Rd
Peyton, CO 80831-8720

Irregardless of how you felt about Fred..... his family needs our thoughts and prayers.
Fred spent a lot of years tinkering with the K/F line.......  God's speed Mr. Walker ......

Dave Hollen

[ben-tex]

I first met Fred back in the early 80s. I was a new member of the club and Chuck Ashtin, Secretary at the time, suggested I contact Fred after I informed him I was looking for a 51 Kaiser. Fred and I corresponded back and forth and he eventually interested me in a 51 he had. I was planning a trip out west and arranged to stop by his place to look at the car. He agreed to get it out of storage and get it running. I arrived in Colorado Springs late one afternoon and called Fred from my motel. He agreed to pick me up the next morning and drive me out to his farm where he had cars stored. He showed up on time driving some sort of Oldsmobile as I recall--and it was raining a bit. We took off and soon were on a "country type" road. Fred was making about 70 or 80 in the rain and his radar detector was constantly signaling. He did not seem concerned but I admit I was a tad put off. Now I was thinking perhaps our Walker families were somehow interconnected afterall although neither of us had any indication of that. Anyway we arrived at the farm and as we turned in we had to go up and over a small rise and that is when I saw the famous Fred Walker Kaiser yard. Cars all over the place in kind of orderly rows.I think some of them belonged to friends of his. These were mostly parts cars but I am sure many of them were eventually restored. OK where is "my" car? It's in the barn (a large metal building). Yes it was but I was not too happy to find what that meant. The building had a sand type floor and cars were crammed in like sardines--at least one Darrin and a couple of convertibles and lots of goodies.  Now the cars were so close together there was no room to walk between them. And my 51 was back in a far corner! Fred jumped up on a car fender and started walking along the window ledges of cars and I guess he expected me to follow him! But I was not about to do that. At the time I tipped the scales at about 265 and I had been out of the acrobat stage for a long time. I pictured at the least smashing a few cars and more likely breaking a leg or something. Anyway I decided to pass on the car. I would have likely bought the car if Fred had gotten around to getting the car out before I got there. It was probably a reasonable deal at the time. The car had been driven from Kansas according to him and was even the same color as the 51 my Dad had bought new. I bought a few parts from Fred over the years and we visited at the Nationals.  He was a character.

If you hear me Fred--see if you can get that Kaiser out of the far corner.

[jreeder41]

That is sad to hear. I just recently purchased wheels cylinders and some other misc. parts from him. I was planning on calling him to get some of the missing parts from our 51 kaiser. He was very nice and very helpful to us when we were working on the 47 Frazer. I hope the parts and cars will be saved and not crushed.

[ben-tex]

I remembered another thing concerning Fred this morning. Pete Tetley told me that Fred was the slickest car buyer he had ever seen. Pete went along on a buying/hauling trip with Fred one time. Fred owned a commercial car hauler like the ones he used to drive back when he hauled KFs new from the factory. Pete said Fred was such a good talker that it was like the sellers would want to pay him for hauling off their old cars!

[joefrazer]

I visited with a Fred a few years back and he still had the car hauler on his lot. He wanted $5K for it so we passed...but it would make for a neat display when filled with Kaisers and Frazers at a KF national. Fred will be missed.

[LEONARD (MATER)]

Hello! My name is LEONARD C. LONG  :(SON OF HERBERT H. LONG VERY CLOSE FRIEND OF FRED'S),I'm so sorry to hear about Fred. I met Fred at times when he and dad did things to gether. I need to ask my brother Fred Long if he knew that Fred passed. Dads old 54 Kaiser was at Fred's . My brother lives in Denver and his boys around there some where.I need to contact the members here in SO CAL.I still have dads old Frazer and working to get it on the road again now I'm retired.I just found this site and will use it