Richard Leroy Walters

Who was Richard Leroy Walters?

Richard Leroy Walters was a jet propulsion engineer who died homeless in Phoenix, Arizona and left a bequest of $4 million to charities, including National Public Radio and the Mission of Mercy, in Phoenix.

During the Korean War he served in the Marines. According to the 1959 Purdue University yearbook, his hometown was Huntington, Indiana and he was a member of the honorary engineering societies Pi Tau Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He earned a bachelors degree with honors in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1959 and a masters degree in teaching from Ball State University. He never married, had no children, and was estranged from his two brothers.

After 23 years of working at Allied Signal Aerospace he was forced into early retirement, and began living on the streets. While living on the streets, he was always neat and clean and wore a baseball cap and small backpack, but was very reserved and lacked social skills. He did not own a car. Rita Belle, a volunteer nurse with the mission, befriended Walters for nine years and helped him find temporary housing after she learned that he slept behind a local senior center.