EDUCATION MAKES THE SKY THE LIMIT

If anyone ever told a young Dr. Wilma “Willi” Walker (Class of 1956) that the sky was the limit, she took it literally.

A native of Carter County, Walker was raised to reach for the stars. Her father, Harry E. Walker, graduated from Morehead Normal School in the 1920s. Her mother, Ola T. Walker, graduated in 1954, and her brother, James G. Walker, graduated in 1955.

Walker majored in commerce and geography and earned junior and senior high school teaching credentials at MSU. She completed much of her student teaching in mathematics and traveled to Michigan and California, and taught children of U.S. Air Force personnel at military bases in Europe and North Africa. Other than her uncles, who served in World War II, she was the first person in her family to travel abroad.

After these adventures, she returned to Kentucky and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in geography at the University of Kentucky. In 1973, she became an assistant professor of geography at Eastern Kentucky University and in 1981 was tapped to research and develop an academic aviation program. The program launched in 1983 with a ground and flight class. A minor was added in 1984 and a bachelor’s degree in 1991, the only bachelor’s degree in aviation offered in Kentucky at the time.

At EKU, Walker served in two areas: head of the Aviation Program (1983-2000) and chair of the Geography Department (1986-2000). She retired in 2000 and remains active in the aviation community and several philanthropic organizations. She also served as president of the Kentucky Aviation Administration and is a charter member of the Kentucky Aviation Museum. Walker was inducted into the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame in 2021.

Upon retirement, she also became engaged with the MSU Alumni Association and MSU Foundation serving on both boards. In 2008, she established the Walker Family Endowment in honor of her family. The scholarship endowment is now valued at over $100,000 and Walker has committed a planned gift estimated to grow the fund to nearly $1 million dollars.

The scholarship supports graduates of West Carter High School who have a 3.0 GPA and is renewable throughout the student’s four-year education at MSU.