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Crime & Safety

Silver Spring Resident Dr. Ron Walters Remembered at Howard University Services

Walters was remembered by many notables who spoke of him as an revered Political Scientist and friend.

A who's who of politicians, civil rights leaders, political scholars, colleagues and friends came together Sunday afternoon at Howard University, to say farewell and celebrate the life of renowned political scientist Dr. Ronald W. Walters.

More than 700 people attended the memorial service in Cramton Auditorium to honor Walters, at the school where he had based much of his career.  Walters died of cancer on September 10, at age 72. He was a long-time resident of Silver Spring, along with his wife Patricia Turner Walters, who survives him.

Former Clinton adviser Vernon Jordan opened the remembrances, followed by Dr. Joyce A. Ladner, former interim President of Howard.

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The Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were among many other prominent figures paying tribute at the service.  Reverend Sharpton called Walters the nation's "preeminent scholar-activist."  "Of all the nation's scholars…none had the impact in our time of Dr. Ron Walters," he said.

An internationally recognized political scientist, professor and author, Walters was considered one of the country's leading scholars on the politics of race. He frequently appeared on both national and local media as analyst and commentator.

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Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings paid tribute by recalling his days as a former student of Walters and the impact he'd had on his life.  He said Walters refused to accept less than the best of his students.

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters called Walters "one of the most important political theorists and analysts of his generation."  She reminded the crowd of Walter's instrumental role as Reverend Jesse Jackson's Campaign Manager in Jackson's historic 1984 Democratic Presidential race.

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Walters became a combination of both civil rights activist and academic.  As a student leader in 1958, he led what many historians consider the country's first lunch counter sit-in protest against segregation, at Wichita drugstore.

For 15 years, Dr. Walters served as Chairman of Howard University's Political Science Department.  He later accepted a position at the University of Maryland as Director of the African American Leadership Institute and Distinguished Leadership Scholar. Just this year Walters agreed to return to Howard University, as lecturer and Senior Research fellow. 

The author of many books, Walters was working on a book about President Obama at the time of his death.  During the service some of his colleagues and former students pledged to finish the book for him.

Reverend Jesse Jackson will deliver the eulogy at Walters's funeral service, Monday at Shiloh Baptist Church, 1500 Ninth Street, NW in DC.  Public viewing is at 10 a.m., followed by the service at 11:00.  Walters is to be buried in Silver Spring, at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery.  

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