Walter A. Friend Jr. ’48

Walter A. Friend Jr. ’48 died on April 29, 2017, at his home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Walt was raised in Melrose, Massachusetts, and attended high school at Choate in Wallingford, Connecticut. At Dartmouth he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. After attending Babson School of Business, he joined the family business, Friend’s Baked Beans, founded by his grandfather and great-uncle. Walt interrupted his education by enlisting in the U.S. Army on his 18th birthday. As a corporal, he served as a paratrooper in the 152nd Army Anti-Aircraft Battalion, first in the Philippines and then in Japan. Walt developed a passion for jazz music in his teens and learned to play drums while at Choate. In the Army he played the drums in a swing band that traveled through towns and bases around Japan in a train boxcar, experiences he cherished. This talent would come to define his later years, as he continued performing professionally. Most recently, Walt sat in with Kenny Wenzel’s band at Martinis in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and performed with groups of eclectic local musicians at the Village in Plymouth. The only thing he loved more than music and golf was his family. He met his wife of 67 years, Cynthia, while resuming his study at Dartmouth after the war. They were married in Duxbury in the summer of 1948 and had children Leslie, Stephen, Brenda and Bruce. In addition to them, he is survived by eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.