Walt grew up on the beach in Woodmont, Milford with his siblings, raised by their indomitable single mother Jean Merritt. They were poor and fatherless, but he remembered being extraordinarily lucky in that his teachers looked out for him; they intervened when he started skipping school and affirmed his intelligence and value. His senior year of high school he moved in with the Otto family and considered Mr. and Mrs. Otto his second parents and Jay Otto his best friend and brother.

He joined the Navy at 17, serving on the USS Kawishiwi, an oil tanker in the South Pacific during the Vietnam War. His time on that ship was a cherished memory that confirmed his love of the sea. When he first moved to Pearl Harbor, the 18-year-old, who had seldom left Milford, saw Steve McQueen for the very first time, next to him, large as life, at a stop light in Honolulu. They nodded to each other. While in the Navy, he sent money home to help out, the start of a lifetime of care and generosity. Once out of the Navy, he got an undergraduate degree from University of Connecticut and went on to get an MBA from University of New Haven.

In 1970, Walt married Virginia Rawlinson of Bridgeport. He said when he met her, she “knocked his socks off!” They were partners and best friends for 52 years. They shared a love of children and family, the outdoors, peace activism, the theater (especially productions at GHS that their children, Walter and Genevieve, performed in) and an appreciation for the novel Moby Dick. Always game for an adventure together, they spent the summer of 1977 traveling around Europe in a Citroën deux chevaux and a tent. Over the years, love of travel and learning took them to Europe, England, Scotland, Ireland, China, and Thailand.

As an adult, Walt remembered what it was like to grow up fatherless and he more than made up for it when his turn came to be a father. His love found expression in his bottomless patience and his enthusiasm for all children’s games. He will especially be remembered for spending hours playing Star Wars, creating mazes on the beach for his and the neighborhood kids to run through, playing the board game “Kingmaker” and supervising “red rover.” He taught his children, grandchildren and nephews and nieces the techniques of building fires and using a telescope. He supported every activity his kids chose and could be relied on to videotape, photograph, coach, provide technical expertise, or just brute labor to assist with their projects. By many he will be remembered as the most thoughtful soccer coach they ever had. His rule was that all the children get to play the same amount regardless of skill level. Winning was never as important to him as having everyone enjoy the game.

He broke the cycle of violence and abandonment handed down to him by his own father. In that, and countless other ways, he left the world a better place.

In 1993 he met a new, surprise sibling, Tom Chase, who had been raised by another family. He commented often on how lucky he was to have been given such a wonderful brother, an unexpected gift.

Once married, he chose Guilford to be his family’s home. He participated and supported several organizations in town. He was a member of St Albans Masonic Lodge #38 and a Master of the Lodge in 2004 where he is remembered as a “true gentleman” who made changes to the Lodge to encourage socializing, mutual support, and fun. He served as treasurer of Indian Cove Association. He volunteered at the Little Folks Fair and other town events. He submitted his videotapes of concerts and GHS sporting events to GCTV for everyone’s enjoyment. One bleak mid-winter, he submitted a tape of 30 minutes of just waves rolling in onto the Guilford shore so that those who lived inland would have something to meditate on.

Walt was interested in everything; his curiosity and enthusiasm energized everybody around him. He loved Long Island Sound and sailing, he once owned a Cal 20 sailboat, taught his children, nephew and niece to sail and shared a fishing boat pragmatically named Square Ender with his friend Dave Hamilton. He raced sailboats with his friend and fellow Mason, Elliot Wilcox, and sailed a boat that had participated in the Bermuda race home to Branford. His last boat was a classic 10-foot Dyer Dow sailing dingy. He relished bridge games with his dear friends, the Abbotts; poker with Kendrick Norris, his minister; and hearts and chess with co-workers, friends, and family; he lost with laughter and won with glee. An amateur fossil hunter and rockhound, he found some rare Jasper nodules in Arkansas that now reside in a museum. As an amateur astronomer, and birder, he saw Halley’s comet from the beach in Indian Cove and was always eager to show anyone who would stop at his telescope the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter. His last birding trips was to Percé on the Gaspé Peninsula in Canada to see the Gannets that fish and breed there. He loved planes, cars, and trains; he flew on the Concorde once, owned an MG TD in his youth, and always took the kids to the front of a train or plane to talk with the engineer and pilot, look at the instrument panel, and take in the view.

Throughout the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, he worked for financial institutions and traveled all over the world including Coatzacoalcos Mexico, Milan Italy, England, Saudi Arabia, New York, and Chicago. On one of his trips to Mexico, he took more than a dozen World Cup 1990 issue soccer balls, a much-appreciated gift for his Mexican coworkers. He made a strong effort to learn about and to share in what was important to the communities he worked with. In recent years, he worked for FEMA a job of support and compassion that fit his personal values.

Most recently, his favorite activities included time with his beloved granddaughter Lillian who visited weekly to share pizza and her home-made peanut butter cookies with him, and just for this last year of his life, his baby grandson Corax who daily entertained Walt with the music of Winnie the Pooh.

He cared about the individuals whose lives he touched and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with friends. Empathy and kindness framed his view of others and he especially delighted in family and the reunions of the Merritt clan.

We are grateful that Walt was able to remain at home surrounded, loved, and entertained by his family: Walter Corbiere III, Amanda Windhurst, and their daughter Lillian; Genevieve Corbiere, Markus Bergvind, and their son Corax and his siblings Amy Corbiere, Jean Hesford, and Tom Chase, and his wife Virginia. For the last year and a half, family and friends provided a robust team of support that was augmented by the steadfast care and kindness provided by Donna Velez, our health care CNA. Walt was 78 when he died of dementia on Dec. 17. A celebration of his life is being planned for the spring.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Guilford Land Trust https://guilfordlandtrust.org/support/remember/ or the Menunkatuck Audubon Society, Donate — Menunkatuck Audubon Society.