On June 11, Walter Welch of Boothbay Harbor died peacefully in the hospice section of St. Andrew’s Hospital. He was surrounded by his family, including his wife of 63 years, his three children, a son-in-law, and a grandson.
Although vigorous and active for most of his 86 years, during his last year, Walter dealt courageously, and without complaint, with one health crisis after another. His upbeat nature, ready smile, and scientific curiosity made him a favorite of his many caregivers.
Walter Raynes Welch was born on Oct. 25, 1920, in the central Maine mill town of Rumford, to Arthur James Welch and Mary Raynes Welch. It was in Rumford that the teenaged Walter met his wife to be, Emmalin Smith Christiansen.
Walter began his lifetime fascination with science in general, and wildlife in particular, at a Rotary Club meeting to which his father had taken him. He believed he would be interested in hearing the speaker, a wildlife expert, and he was indeed interested and began to make plans to study wildlife management at college. He enrolled at the University of Maine in Orono in 1939, majoring in wildlife conservation.
In the fall of 1942, with WWII raging, Walter left school in his junior year and joined the U.S. Army Air Force. Over the next four and a half years, the armed forces sent him to armament school in Denver, Col.; then to Avon Park, Fla.; McDill Field in Tampa, Fla.; and Lake Charles, La. Though his heart was set on flying, the Army ultimately assigned him to the ultra-secret Manhattan Project. Stationed in Wendover, Ut., his team was charged with the task of assembling explosives, in such a way, that they would set off what would become known as the “Fat Man”: the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Although the young soldiers knew plutonium was at the core of the device, they were assured that they were working with “dummies.”
Communication in 1944 was largely by mail, and it was by letter that Walter proposed marriage to his high school sweetheart, Emmalin Christiansen, stationed in Philadelphia, Penn. as a WAVE with the U.S. Navy. She accepted, and they married on April 22, 1944, in Rumford, both in uniform. They each returned to duty after a honeymoon skiing in the White Mountains in New Hampshire.
Discharged from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1946 with the rank of sergeant, Walter returned to the University of Maine on the G.I. Bill and completed both a B.S. degree and a Master of Science degree in wildlife conservation in two and a half years. His wife Emmalin, also on the GI Bill, started and completed her B.A. degree at the same time.
After graduation, Walter secured a position as a researcher at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Station on McKown Point in Boothbay Harbor. The family home in Boothbay was soon filled with three children: Martha Louise, born in 1949; Steven Eric, born in 1951; and Christine Allison, born in 1953.
Walter stayed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until the McKown Point lab’s closure in 1973. During his 25 years as a project director, he pioneered research of the Maine softshell clam and its chief predator, the green crab, and of the sea scallop.
With the closure of the federal laboratory, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) took over the facilities, ultimately offering positions to some of the former federal scientists. Walter was one of those who decided to go with DMR rather than transfer out of state. He remained with DMR until the 1980s, finishing up his career as assistant director and then interim director.
With retirement, came the opportunity to do things he’d long dreamed of: spend good-weather days tending a huge vegetable garden and bad-weather days in his wood shop making toys for grandchildren, and repairing just about anything repairable. In 2000, when Walter turned 80, he decided that if he was ever going to build the Whitehall rowing boat he’d hoped to make, he’d better do it now. It took him nearly two years, but he finished the rowing boat.
Walter was predeceased by his sister, Jenny Gardner; and brother, James Welch.
Survivors include his wife Emmalin; children, Martha Gleason of Boothbay Harbor, Steven Welch of Malvern, Penn., and Dr. Christine Welch of Newcastle; and six grandchildren.
As Walter wished, there will be no formal funeral service.
The family will hold a private service, scattering his ashes at sea.
Donations in Walter Welch’s name may be made to The Burnt Island Living Lighthouse Program, c/o Department of Marine Resources, P.O. Box 8, West Boothbay Harbor, ME 04575 or St. Andrew’s Hospital, Hospital Lane, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538.
Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Simmons, Harrington, & Hall Funeral Home in Boothbay.
