Robert "Bob" Walker, who launched his television and radio career nationally after covering the Kennedy assassination for WFAA, died from kidney and liver failure Monday at his Minnesota home. He was 77.
Mr. Walker worked as the station manager and news director at WFAA from 1961 to 1964. While there, he covered the news of President John F. Kennedy's assassination and the killing of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, his son said.
"It kind of boosted and started his career," his son, Robert Walker of Marshall, Minn., said of his father's days in Dallas. "Even though he was there for a short amount of time, he was very connected to Dallas because of the coverage he did."
Mr. Walker served in the Korean War while he was in the Air Force from 1951 to 1954. After his military service, he attended Southern Illinois University, where he studied voice.
After his stint in Dallas, Mr. Walker became the news director at WGBH in Boston before going to ABC Radio in New York in 1968. He served as a radio news correspondent until his retirement in 1994.
Throughout the years, Mr. Walker traveled the world, covering the collapse of the Berlin Wall, President Harry S. Truman's funeral, the Challenger space shuttle explosion and national political conventions, his son said.
Services are Sunday in Marshall, Minn.
In addition to his son, Mr. Walker is survived by his sister, Marge Hardwick of West Covina, Calif., and two grandsons.
