Stuart Walker

Stuart Walker attended Middlebury College, where he established their sailing team, graduating in 1943, and then went to New York University Medical School. In 1946 he was a medical officer with the 11th Airborne Division in the Army of the Occupation. After leaving the Army he started a pediatric practice in Annapolis in 1963 and later became a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, eventually serving as Chief of Pediatrics at Baltimore’s Mercy Hospital until retiring in 1984.

Walker sailed on multiple US teams, especially in the 1960s, and in 1963 was the first American to win Bermuda’s Princess Elizabeth Trophy and in 1964, the first to win England’s Prince of Wales Cup, both in the 14 Class. In addition to his Olympic appearance he competed in Soling at the 1979 Pan American Games. Walker authored 12 books on sailboat racing, sail trim, competitive racing, and low-level wind flow, and contributed to many sailing magazines, including Sailing World and the British magazine Yachts and Yachting.

He was a co-founder of the Severn Sailing Association, the top small boat racing club on the East Coast, and was President of the International Soling Class from 1991-94. He also helped create the Thomas Point Lighthouse Race, a point-to-point event. Walker won the Severn Sailing Association’s annual Ice Bowl Regatta 34 out of 60 times from 1955 through 2013. Walker captured the Soling National Championship six times (1973, 1983, 1987, 1988, 2003, 2007) and also won the Australian Gold Cup in 1982. He won national or regional championships in Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Scotland, Netherlands, and Bavaria.

Walker was inducted into the Sailing World Hall of Fame in 1982, the Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame in 1992, and the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2013.