Walker, internationally known scholar of coal and carbon science, dies

Philip L. Walker Jr., Evan Pugh professor of materials science at Penn State.

University Park, Pa. -- Philip L. Walker Jr., Evan Pugh professor of materials science at Penn State, 85, of State College, died March 22, at Hearthside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, State College, Pa.                            

Born Jan. 10, 1924, in Baltimore, he was a son of Philip and Mary Belle Walker. He received his bachelor of science degree in 1947 and his master of science degree in 1948 in chemical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. In 1952, he earned his doctorate in fuel science from Penn State. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he served in World War II.

On July 14, 1949, he married Virginia Lee Strobel, who survives. Also surviving are his three children, Page Elise Walker, of Colorado Springs, Colo., John Spencer Walker and his wife, Linda, of Macungie, Pa., and Lawrence (Larry) Peyton Walker and his wife, Karen, of State College; and four grandchildren, Ryan and Taylor Walker, of Macungie, and Mitchell and Maxwell Walker, of State College.

Walker retired from Penn State in 1983, after serving 32 years on the faculty.

He was an internationally known scholar of coal and carbon science. He was the author of over 300 scholarly publications, editor of Chemistry Physics of Carbon, and associate editor of the international journal Carbon. He was one of the founders of the American Carbon Society, serving as treasurer and later, chairman. In 1969 he received the Storch Award of the American Chemical Society for "distinguished contributions to the science and utilization of coal." In 1971, he received the Skakel Award of the American Carbon Society for "achievements in virtually all areas of the field of carbon which have significantly influenced the science and technology of carbon materials."

Walker was a national lecturer of Sigma Xi in 1961 and the Graffin lecturer of the American Carbon Society in 1980. He consulted widely with industry and the federal government. He served on the board of directors of C-COR Electronics from 1960 until 1997.
 
Walker started on the faculty of Penn State in 1950 as Instructor in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and became full professor in 1956. He was head of the Fuel Science Program from 1954 to 1959 and again from 1978 until his retirement in 1983. He was chairman of the Mineral Technology Division of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences from 1959 to 1964. In 1967, he was appointed head of the newly formed Department of Materials Science and Engineering, continuing to serve as head until 1978. He directed the master of science and doctorate research of over 100 graduate students and also directed post-doctoral research of some 50 students from throughout the world.

Walker was a member of the Mount Nittany Society of Penn State and the Obelisk Society of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. He belonged to the State College Presbyterian Church and Centre Hills Country Club. He was a contributor to Penn State's Renaissance Fund and the Philip and Virginia Walker Family Fund at the Centre County Community Foundation, Inc.

Memorial contributions may be sent to The Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker Jr., Scholarship in Materials Science and Engineering, (payable to Penn State University), One Old Main, University Park, PA 16802, or the Philip and Virginia Walker Family Fund of the Centre County Community Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 648, State College, PA 16804.