Pat Walker and her late husband, Willard, had “modest upbringings” and “always believed that people should have the tools to reach their full potential,” she said.
Walker added, “Having a solid education and good health is critical to this.”
The Walkers started the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation in Springdale in 1986 because “we felt so blessed with what we had, that it was our job to give back.” The foundation focuses on improving healthcare and education in the community and across the state by providing grants to nonprofits.
Specifically, Walker said, the foundation has helped eliminate financial burdens through student scholarships and believes that “access to quality health care shouldn’t be a privilege.”
Walker was born Amy Seamans in 1919 in Boise, Idaho, and moved around as a child before settling in Tulsa with her mother after her parents separated. Her mother worked three jobs to provide for them and even paid for her daughter to have private schooling.
Walker said her mother’s love and care for her influenced how she feels about helping others, especially children, and she learned how to be a good mother by the example her mother set.
When Walker turned 21, she moved to Coffeyville, Kansas, for a job as a sales clerk at the S.H. Kress department store. That’s where she met another who would not only change her name in more ways than one but greatly influence her life — her husband, Willard.
“We both had similar values and ideas, but we made each other better people,” Walker said. “Helping others seemed to be natural to him, and it was important to both of us. I think we made a pretty good team.”
Willard was working in the stockroom, and the store had a policy against co-workers dating. She said that they were “friends” outside of work and that is when her life as “Pat” began. He started calling her Pat because co-workers were also not allowed to see each other socially and it was hoped the nickname might throw the more suspicious people off the trail.
The two were married in 1942, moved around a lot at first, then came to and stayed in Springdale, where Willard managed a Walmart for Sam Walton.
Pat worked several part-time jobs — at the junior high school, even selling real estate. Willard entered the local real estate game as a rancher and member of the American Charolaise Association. Their Charolaise cattle ranch is still in east Springdale.
The also raised their two children, Patricia and Johnny Mike, in Springdale.
Walker’s greatest accomplishment? Her family, which includes seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, she said. A 16th great-grandbaby is on the way.
Walker’s son still lives in Springdale and is active on the foundation’s board. She also said she’d been blessed by lifelong friends, too many to name, all of whom have a special place in her heart.
But she and Willard’s life together was not without challenges.
“One of those moves had us back in Tulsa, where we tried our luck at owning our own business,” Walker said. “I had taken a few accounting classes to help Willard with the bookkeeping. Operating our own store wasn’t a successful venture, but that failure ended up being the best thing that ever happened to us.”
They moved to Springdale after their business folded, and “the success of Walmart allowed us to be fortunate enough to have the funds to help others.”
Walker is still active on the foundation board that makes funding decisions and, though she doesn’t make it to as many events as she used to, enjoys doing so as much as possible. Walker and her husband used to sit in their home and talk with applicants directly but now the foundation office takes care of those details, although she says she still enjoys interacting with organizations and hearing what they’re doing.
“I am motivated by people … children in particular are a soft spot in my heart,” Walker said. “I am inspired to keep up the foundation’s good work because I am able to see the good that comes from giving. Being a part of the success and growth of our community is very important to me. My goal and hopes would be that everyone in our community is happy and healthy.”
Her advice to others? “Do whatever makes you happy. I believe helping others is the most rewarding thing you can do and seeing another person smile is priceless.”
Walker is a lifetime member of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, a member of the SpringCreek Fellowship of Springdale and an enthusiastic Razorbacks fan.
“Although neither Willard nor I went to school at the U of A, our children and several grandchildren were Razorbacks,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed meeting the coaches and many student athletes — they are such friendly people. I always wear red to the games and my Razorback jewelry. Go Hogs go.”
SpringCreek was formerly known as First Christian Church and she and Willard taught Sunday school there.
Of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Rockefeller Institute, she said the UAMS staff had been pivotal in many lives, including her own. The board received one of the couple’s first gifts and, although she and Willard intended the donation to be anonymous, they were convinced by a friend that putting their names on it would encourage others to give as well.
Walker has received several awards, including the 2002 American Heart Association Tiffany Award, the Distinguished Service Award from the Razorback Foundation and the UAMS Distinguished Service Award. She was named one of the Most Distinguished Women in Arkansas.
Walker was inducted, along with her husband, into the Towers of Old Main in 2001; is a longtime member of the U of A Chancellor’s Society and UAMS Chancellor’s Society and served as honorary chairperson in 2005 for the Komen Ozark Race for the Cure.
The Pat Walker Theater at Springdale High School was dedicated in 1996. The Pat Walker Health Center on the UA campus in Fayetteville was dedicated in 2004. The Pat Walker Teacher Education Program at the University of the Ozarks was dedicated in 2007. The Pat Walker Center for Seniors at Washington Regional Medical Center was dedicated in 2008. The neonatal Intensive care unit at Arkansas Children’s Hospital was also named for her, in 2010.
Among the organizations that have received support from the Walkers’ foundation are Ozark Guidance, Circle of Life Hospice, the Jones Center for Families, the Fayetteville Public Library, the Springdale Public Library and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
Discover more about the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame Class of 2016.
Sign up for Daily E-news
