By Deborah Larsen
Walter W. Brown
Walter Wayne Brown was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, on December 13, 1916, the son of Charles and Lois Wallace Brown.
As a teenager, Walter was a member of the “Rochester Boys” ski jumping club that competed at the ski jump on Newberry Hill near Bloomer State Park. He became an accomplished amateur ski jumper, winning numerous awards and setting records. In August 1941, he married his childhood sweetheart, Eva Rewold.
Walter entered the army in 1942 and was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, where his skills honed in Rochester as a ski jumper landed him a position in the ski troops. The 10th Mountain Division’s famed ski troops learned to operate under the harshest mountain conditions; they trained at Mount Rainier in Washington and at Camp Hale in Colorado before heading off to the Aleutians. Next, they fought the Germans in the Apennine Mountains in Italy. By war’s end, Walter would eventually serve in both the European and Pacific theaters of operation.
After the war, Walter worked as a finish carpenter for Frank Rewold & Sons, spending part of his time working on carpentry jobs at Meadow Brook Farm.
Walter Brown died at age 92 in 2009 and was laid to rest in Oxford, Michigan.
Story details and photo courtesy of Susan K. (Brown) Johnson.