Walter W. Garner

Walter W. Garner Jr., born in Paterson, NJ, beloved husband of Doris (Bridge) Garner, son of Walter W. Garner Sr. (deceased) and Ann (Weismann) Garner (deceased), brother of Virginia Garner Tanis (deceased) and brother of Joan Riva Aimone (deceased), passed on to his reward on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at his home of the last 21 years in Venice, Florida. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Doris; 5 children: Walter of Hawthorne, NJ, Patricia Burt of Venice, Florida, James of Oakland, New Jersey, Gary of Naples, Florida, and Kathleen Scrudato of Mountain Home, Pa; daughters-in-law Lenore of Hawthorne, Rita of Oakland, and Karen of Naples; sons-in-law Richard of Venice, Florida, and Rick of Mountain Home, PA; 12 grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. He attended schools in Haledon and Paterson and graduated from Passaic County Tech. He was employed as a pattern maker at Curtis Wright making airplane engines when he gave up his War-related deferment and joined the Army in 1943. He was assigned to the Army Air Corps, and for the first time in his life left New Jersey to attend military training in North Dakota. He was a sergeant with the 380th Bombardment Squad of the 310th. Bombardment Group and flew missions through the end of the War. His plane and crew survived attacks for fighters and flack. At war’s end he returned to Hawthorne and married Doris Bridge in 1948 and raised his family in the town he loved. Being raised during the Depression, family and responsibility meant everything to him, and his main enjoyment in life was his wife and family. He became an expert in making Halloween costumes out of coat hangers and crepe paper. He could turn a bicycle into a cornfield for the Mayor’s bicycle parade. Pinewood Derbys were his specialty, and they always flew. He could make a kite from scratch – sometimes they flew sometimes they didn’t – it didn’t matter when were on the Monument Hill in Hawthorne on a beautiful day. He fished because his kids liked to; he coached baseball because his kids liked to; he went to plays because his kids performed; he went camping because his kids liked to; everything he did it was because his kids and his wife liked to . He was active in St. Anthony’s Church in Hawthorne, NJ, and attended Epiphany Cathedral in Venice. He belonged to the Friendly’s Irish Club and The New Jersey Club. He will be missed by Family, Friends and the many people whose lives he touched.