| John T. Walton | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 8, 1946 Newport, Arkansas |
| Died | June 27, 2005 (aged 58) Jackson, Wyoming |
John Thomas Walton (October 8, 1946 in Newport, Arkansas[1] – June 27, 2005 in Jackson, Wyoming) was a decorated United States war veteran and a son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. He was also the chairman of True North Partners, a venture capital firm.
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Early life and service in the Vietnam War
Walton graduated from Bentonville High School where he was a star football player. Walton went on to attend the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. He dropped out of college in 1968 to enlist in the U.S. Army (after the Vietnamese Tet Offensive).
During the Vietnam war Walton served in the Green Berets as part of the Studies and Observations Group. He was involved in combat in the A Shau Valley and in Laos, where he was the medic and second-in-command of a unit named "Strike Team Louisiana".[2] Walton later received a Silver Star for bravery in combat.
Awards and decorations
Combat Infantryman Badge
Parachutist Badge (United States)- Army Special Forces tab
Silver Star
Army Commendation Medal
Army Air Medal
Presidential Unit Citation (United States) 2001, Studies and Observations Group
Later life
After returning from Vietnam Walton learned to fly and went to work as a pilot for Wal-Mart. He later left the company to fly crop-dusters over cotton fields in several southern states and co-founded Satloc, an aerial application company that pioneered the use of GPS technology in agricultural crop-dusting. Walton then moved to San Diego where he founded a company that built trimaran sailboats. He also lived in Durango, Colorado and was an enthusiastic skier, mountain biker, hiker, motorcycle rider, sky diver and scuba diver.
In 1998 as part of the Philanthropy Roundtable Walton and friend Ted Forstmann established the Children's Scholarship Fund to provide tuition assistance for low-income families to send their children to private schools. He was an advocate of school vouchers.
Death
Walton died on June 27, 2005 when his CGS Hawk Arrow[3] homebuilt aircraft (registered as an "experimental aircraft" under FAA regulations) that he was piloting crashed in Jackson, Wyoming. Walton's plane crashed at 12:20 p.m. local time (1820 GMT) shortly after taking off from Jackson Hole Airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board later reported that Walton had "improperly" reinstalled the rear locking collar on the elevator control torque tube. This allowed the torque tube to move rearward during his flight and loosened the elevator control cable tension. The outcome of the failed repair was an inflight loss of pitch control, without which Walton could not control the aircraft's altitude.
Shortly before his death Forbes magazine has estimated Walton's net worth to be US$18.2 billion, tied with his brother Jim as the 4th richest person in the United States [1] and 11th-richest person in the world.
Walton was survived by his wife Christy and their son Lukas. He had two brothers and a sister, S. Robson Walton, Jim Walton and Alice Walton.
See also
References
- ^ http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2375.html
- ^ An account of the battle in Laos can be found in the book Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam (ISBN 0-9743618-0-1) by John Stryker Meyer.
- ^ cgsaviation.com
External links
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