From humble beginnings, James Talmage "Tokey' Walker's ambition and worth ethic led to success.
By BETSY BOLGER-PAULET
Published May 12, 2003
A desk at 1310 N Hercules Ave. is empty for the first time in close to 50 years. James Talmage "Tokey" Walker, founder of Metal Industries Inc., now J.T. Walker Industries, died peacefully Friday (May 9, 2003) at home. He was 90.
Active in the business he created in Clearwater after World War II, the last full week of Mr. Walker's life was spent at work, as was his custom. He arrived at the plant around 7:30 a.m, eating breakfast and lunch at his desk, and he returned home around 5 p.m.
Mr. Walker developed his strong work ethic at an early age. He delivered newspapers and sorted dirty diapers at the Swan Laundry to save enough money to attend the University of Alabama, where he hoped to earn a law degree.
The collapse of the banks in 1931 saw his savings and his educational aspirations lost and the direction of his life changed. Mr. Walker often said that he graduated from the School of Hard Knocks.
Undaunted, he worked as the manager of an A&P grocery store and with his earnings became a part-time promoter in partnership with Jules Stein, a Chicago ophthalmologist who founded the Music Corporation of America (MCA), and silent partner Cecil Wright, later CEO of J.C. Penney Co.
Inspired by his father's cousins, pioneers of southern aviation, he took up flying. His mother designed the first navigational device used at the airport in Huntsville, Ala., when she sewed a wind sock for him.
During World War II, he served as a civilian flight instructor for the United States Navy at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Times were not always easy for him. When he married Sarah Moores of Fayetteville, Tenn., on Dec. 26, 1942, he had to borrow $50 to do it. The couple were married 53 years when she died in 1996.
Later in WWII, he and his bride moved to Marietta, Ga., where Mr. Walker was a production test pilot for the B-29 bomber.
He often described the experience with as "being the first person to fly an aircraft made by 30,000 people who had never even seen an airplane before."
In October 1945, the Walkers moved to Clearwater at the invitation of the late Robert J. Word, who had been a flight instructor in Georgia.
Word had located an airport where he planned to enter into business with Roy A. Workman Sr.. and his son, Roy Jr. The four formed the Clearwater Flying Co., where they rented and sold airplanes and gave flying lessons. They created local interest in flying by the use of a number of articles in the former Clearwater Sun. One article recounted Mr. Walker's (unsuccessful) efforts to create rain by seeding the clouds.
When the government discontinued underwriting the cost of teaching war veterans how to fly, the partners converted the company to make window screens with aluminum frames. The first screens were constructed in the corner of a hanger at the airpark.
From this early screen business, Metal Industries Inc. was born. Eventually, the Workman family founded a firm that made folding patio furniture, while Word and Walker rented an old packing house on Pinellas Street as a manufacturing facility for the screens.
In 1956, Word and Walker built the plant at 1310 N Hercules Ave. Today, the original Metal Industries company, makes products for the building industry and has more than 30 locations across the country and thousands of employees.
In another pursuit, Mr. Walker joined James M. Jackson in purchasing and farming an orange grove where much of the Highland Lakes subdivision now stands. He later raised Charolais cattle on a ranch in Brooksville, which several years later he converted into a commercial nursery. An avid supporter of Lady Bird Johnson's beautification efforts, he spread wildflower (phlox) seeds over a wide area of the state.
Mr. Walker was involved with the Clearwater YMCA and the Lions Club and was a founding member of the Springtime City Kiwanis Club. He was chairman of the Morton Plant Hospital Charity Ball in 1989. He was awarded the Golden Flame Philanthropy Award in 2000 in recognition of the donation he made in memory of his late wife, Sarah.
Mr. Walker was a former president of the Clearwater Touchdown Club, was a supporter of the University of Florida, where a football endowment was named in his honor on his 90th birthday.
He was a member of the Casado Club and for many years hosted the group's annual barbecue.
Mr. Walker is survived by a daughter, Sarah (Sally) Walker Guthrie of Clearwater; a son James Jr., of Englewood, Colo.; a sister, Eloise Walker, Clearwater; and 10 grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. today at Moss Feaster Fort Harrison Chapel, 802 N Fort Harrison Ave., with a memorial tribute at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Harborview Center, 300 Cleveland St., and burial will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Sylvan Abbey Cemetery.
The family requests donations be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
