Daniel Walker Totally Explained

Everything about Daniel Walker totally explained

Daniel Walker (born August 6, 1922) is a former Democratic governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1973 to 1977.
He was born in Washington D.C. and raised near San Diego, California. He was the second Governor of Illinois to graduate from the United States Naval Academy. He served as a naval officer in World War II and the Korean War. A graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, Walker later became an executive for Montgomery Ward while pursuing anti-machine Democratic politics in Chicago. He served as a clerk for United States Supreme Court justice Fred M. Vinson and was an aide to Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson and campaign chairman for the 1970 Senate campaign of Stevenson's son also named Adlai. He rose to prominence as head of the Chicago Study Team which issued a report on police conduct at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Walker concluded that in effect a "police riot" occurred.

Illinois Governor

Walker announced his candidacy for Governor of Illinois in 1972, after attracting wide attention by walking across Illinois in 1971, and won the Democratic primary by upsetting then-Lt. Governor Paul Simon. In November, he narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Richard B. Ogilvie and at one point in the early 1970s had presidential aspirations.
The enmity between Walker and Mayor Richard J. Daley's political organization was deep. In 1974, Walker supported legislative candidates against Daley allies. A year later, members of Walker's administration demanded Daley resign as chairman of the Cook County Democratic organization. Walker's deputy Governor, Victor deGrazia later said: "... I knew from the beginning that every time Daley looked at Walker, he saw the Church of England and the British suppression of the Irish, and when Dan would look at Daley, he'd see the quintessential politician who was only interested in political gain."
"We never established anything even approaching a personal rapport. To some degree, this was an obvious and natural result of my independent political activity. But it went deeper

much deeper," said Walker.
Walker didn't repeal the income tax that Ogilvie had enacted and, wedged between Republicans and machine Democrats, had little success with the Illinois legislature during his tenure.
In 1976, Walker lost the Democratic primary to Secretary of State Michael Howlett, the candidate supported by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. Howlett was later defeated by James R. Thompson.

Post political career

In the 1980s, Walker entered the private sector with Butler-Walker, Inc, a chain of self-named quick oil-change franchises later bought out by Jiffy Lube and a pair of troubled Savings and Loans. In 1987 he was convicted of improprieties related to the First American Savings & Loan Association of Oak Brook. Media at the time reported he received over a million dollars in fraudulent loans for his business and repairs on his yacht, the Governor's Lady. At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Ann Williams stated, "It's clear to this court that a pattern was established and that you, Mr. Walker, thought this bank was your own personal piggy bank to bail you out whenever you got into trouble." and was later bailed out by the United States Federal government. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison, and served 18 months at a Duluth, Minnesota correctional facility. In January 2001 he requested a pardon from outgoing President Clinton, but his request wasn't granted.

Family

Daniel Walker was married in 1947 to Roberta Dowse, a Catholic school teacher from Kenosha, Wisconsin. They had seven children, three boys Daniel Jr., Charlie and William and four girls, Kathleen, Julie, Robbie and Margaret. They were divorced in 1977. Roberta Dowse-Walker died in December 2006 from colon cancer. He later married Roberta Nelson, who was 14 years younger than Walker, and was divorced in 1989 while he was in prison. In 2007 he resided in Escondido, California with his third wife Lillian.

Author

In 2007, Southern Illinois University Press released The Maverick and the Machine: Governor Dan Walker Tells His Story, ISBN 0809327562 in which Walker commented on his business and law troubles, saying "I knew this was against regulations, but, like most businessmen, I saw a huge difference between a law and a regulation." In the book he speaks of his experiences in jail as well as in the political sphere. He also authored The First Hundred Years A.D. 1-100: Failures and Successes of Christianity's Beginning (Authors Choice Press September 2001. ISBN 0595196349) and Thirst for Independence: The San Diego Water Story, (Sunbelt Publications, 2004. ISBN 0932653626). In 2003 he'd several other writing projects in the works including a cookbook.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Daniel Walker'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://daniel_walker.totallyexplained.com">Daniel Walker Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.