Clinton Samuel Walker

Clinton Samuel Walker, 93, of Oak Ridge passed away Friday, July 13, at Methodist Medical Center after suffering a heart attack.

Clint was preceded in death by his “sweet, little bride,” Eva, in October of 2009 after 69 years of marriage; parents, Charles and Ella Walker; and brothers, Dubois Walker and Lowery Walker, and sisters, Bess Booth and Eunice Perryman, all of Texas.

Clint was born in Hereford, Texas, and attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, graduating with a degree in electrical engineering in 1939.

During World War II, Clint worked at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Washington, D.C., and supported the war effort by researching why some U.S. torpedoes malfunctioned.

After the war, he taught electrical engineering at the University of Alabama for seven years. Clint earned his master’s degree from the Ohio State University in 1948 and then moved to College Station, Texas, to teach electrical engineering at Texas A&M University from 1949 to 1954.

Always interested in efficient energy production, he persuaded Texas A&M to send him to the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology, where he studied as well as taught for 18 months.

He returned to A&M with the intention of building a nuclear reactor at the university. He decided, however, that the only reactor A&M would build would be one that they could hook up to their football team, and within six months, he returned to Oak Ridge and joined the staff of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Instrumentation and Controls Division.

From its inception in 1959 until 1970, he was an assistant editor of the Nuclear Safety Journal.

In the early 1970s, Clint joined the Tennessee Valley Authority, Nuclear Engineering Branch, where he worked in nuclear power plant safety as principal licensing engineer of the TVA nuclear design staff.

He retired from TVA in 1982 to spend quality time with his family on his gentleman’s farm in Norris. Clint and Eva moved back to Oak Ridge in 1990 to be near their grandchildren.

Clint was a passionate supporter of Oak Ridge High School football and grew to be a well-recognized feature in the handicapped section at Blankenship Field on Friday nights. He also donated generously to the ORHS football program and the effort to keep Wildcat Prep Radio on the air.

Clint is survived by three children and their spouses, Janice and Barry McLean of Silver Spring, Md., Conner and Brenda Walker of Nashville, and Rachel and Steve Klima of Kingston; four grandchildren and their spouses, Flynn McLean and Claudine Gruen of Queens, N.Y.; Dr. Melanie McLean and Major Robert Chung of Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; Travis Klima and Dr. Kristie Chavez of Hernando, Miss.; and Allison and Will Abernathy of Rutledge; two great-granddaughters, Meridith and Kathleen Chung of Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; and one great-grandson, Alex Abernathy of Rutledge.

Receiving of friends, a celebration of life, and an internment of his ashes will be at the First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge on Saturday, July 28 at 10 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Clint’s name to Oak Ridge Football Booster’s Club, P.O. Box 4304, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-4304.

An online guest book may be signed at weatherfordmortuary.com.