| Graduation Year | Class of 1953 |
| Date of Passing | Mar 18, 2008 |
| About | Walter J. Stahura Jr. STAHURA, WALTER "Walt" JR. (December 9th, 1935--March 18, 2008), former athlete and retired businessman, and longtime Cape resident, died at his home after a long illness. He was 72. Walt Stahura was a member of a notable Polish-American family with deep running connections to the area. His father, Walter Stahura, Sr., was a former Principal of Bourne High School, an active Mason and proud family man; his mother, Helen, was a doting homemaker, active reader, and known affectionately by her grandchildren as "Nana." In his younger years, Walt enjoyed tremendous success as an athlete. For those who had the pleasure of watching him compete in the athletic arena in the 1950's, Walt was considered Cape Cod's most gifted "natural athlete" of his time. As a single-wing halfback in high school, he graced the football field with tremendous speed and power, which led Bourne High School football to retire his number 30. As a baseball player, Walt is remembered as a phenomenal centerfielder who shined in high school and college, and was able to take his talents to the competitive Cape League (in which he was elected into the Bourne [Sagamore] Braves inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2002). Coupled with his family's focus on education and a joy for reading, Walt was afforded the opportunity of attending prep school at Deerfield Academy in western Massachusetts. His continued successes there paved the way for his attending Harvard College. While at Harvard, he received many accolades as an All-Ivy League performer in baseball and football, and will be forever remembered as "the quarterback who threw the touchdown pass to Teddy Kennedy in a memorable Harvard/Yale football game." After graduating with a degree in English from Harvard in 1958, Walt started a business career at Wanamaker Companies in Philadelphia and at Brooks Brothers in New York City. In 1960, he met his wife, Wilma Ann Rilling, a Bucknell graduate, while they were both in graduate school at New York University's School of Business. They married in 1961. After the birth of their first son, Kurt, in 1967, they relocated to the Cape, settling in East Sandwich, where they welcomed a second son, Eric, in 1973. Walt's Route 6A business, Old County Hardware, was a well-known and longtime local establishment, with frequent regular visitors and remembered for its great company, until closing in 1989. Walt retired to Buzzard's Bay and enjoyed his waning years on the Cape. His affinity for WWII history, crossword puzzles, spirited conversations about politics and professional sports, and socializing at the local café and pubs, were all part of the daily routine for which he found most enjoyable. Walt will be remembered for his sharp and clever wit, his impressive ability to recount passages from classic novels, and his unyielding friendship. Walt is predeceased by his father, Walter Joseph Stahura; his mother, Helen Rykchik Stahura; and his sister, Eleanor LaMarr. A Memorial service was held at the Nickerson-Bourne Funeral Home, 40 MacArthur Blvd., Bourne, MA on March 25, 2008. Burial was private. |
