Alumnus Walter Shatford Honored by Kiwanis Club

Walter T. Shatford was honored at the annual barbeque for the Temple City Kiwanis Saturday night. VIPS and about a hundred guests attended the celebration. Congressman Schiff and Assemblyman Portantino were on hand to thank the veteran lawyer who has dedicated his life to law and practiced into his 90th year.

Shatford, 94, was accompanied by his wife Sara and daughter also Sara and his Brother Henry who was Temple City's first city attorney. Numerous salutations were bestowed upon the popular Kiwanian who has been a member for 61 years. Walter and his wife Sarah are lifelong residents of Pasadena. Walter opened his law office in Temple City in 1947 with his brother Henry. Henry is a Superior Court judge and was Temple City's first City Attorney. Walter has retired from active law practice and is enjoying retirement. Walter is in his twilight years now having served the people of the San Gabriel Valley for many years. He served on the Board of Trustees of Pasadena City College for 30 years. The Main Library at PCC is named after him. He also served on the Pasadena Board of Education for 8 years.

Walter T. Shatford II was born in Philadelphia in 1914, the oldest of three children; a sister Beatrice, and a brother Henry who became the first City Attorney of Temple City when it was incorporated in 1960. Walter and Henry opened their law practice on Temple City Blvd in 1947.
Their father was a Canadian who helped develop parts of British Columbia, and their mother was British and adventurous, coming to British Columbia when it was still pioneer country. It was there she met her husband-to-be.

Walter attended public schools, first in Seattle, then in Monrovia through high school, two years at then-Pasadena Junior College (now Pasadena City College). He went on to earn a BA at UCLA, and finally on to law school at Stanford where he finished getting his law degree after World War II.
He enlisted in the Navy six weeks before Pearl Harbor, eventually rising from Yeoman to Commander. He remained in the Naval Reserve until he reached retirement age.

He received a doctorate in law from USC after he started to practice law and was accepted to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. He did not retire from practicing law until 2005 at the age of 90. Since he has attended and has degrees from both UCLA, Stanford, and USC, he has a good chance of being able to root for an alma mater on the New Year's Day Rose Bowl game.
He has been a faithful and active 61 year member of the Kiwanis Club of Temple City and is well known to many readers for his many years as editor of the Kiwanis bulletin each week. He has been sports editor on the UCLA Bruins and at one time wanted to be a journalist. Walter is proud of his “perfect attendance” at club meetings.
He married Sara Brady in 1945 during the war and they had four children: Sara, a librarian at UCLA; Walter III, who practiced law as a partner with his father until he died of cancer in 2007; Tom, an artist; and Russell, a hand surgeon. Walter has two grandchildren, Walter IV and Sally Shatford.
He has always loved sports. He used to play tennis and in his youth, after helping to construct a baseball diamond on a vacant lot in Monrovia, he regularly played pick-up baseball. In high school he ran cross country and at UCLA played cricket. His enthusiasm for this was increased by the delicious delicate sandwiches made by the British wives of the older British players who weren't UCLA students but provided the needed fillers for the vacancies in the team.

Even as a child Walter showed his true colors. On vacations he would spend his days trying to clear and straighten his environment. He worked at making clear paths in nature for people young and old—from steps in cliffs to ways to cross rivers, Walter was always trying to improve the world. This habit continues into adulthood—his effort to make the world a better place.
The attitude that led him to try to straighten out and improve the physical world may have influenced him to choose to pursue law as a career. Through law one can work to eliminate the injustices of the world, and Walter's goal was to do that; to right wrongs and settle injustices. He felt that true justice included equal opportunities for everyone, and that meant equal education opportunities.
Walter ran for and was elected to the Pasadena Board of Education and later became a member of the Board of Trustees of Pasadena City College. He regarded education as a basic ingredient to develop oneself to the fullest, as it leads to career success and enrichment of life, opening doors everywhere. So Walter devoted his energy to improving public education as well as pursuing his law practice for the next four decades. As a public display of thanks, the new main library that was constructed at Pasadena City College was named after him. A portrait of Walter by his wife Sara adorns the entryway of the library.
Throughout all aspects of his life, Walter's humor is always available to lighten up any situation. One morning at Crystal Cove (now a state park), he fixed an artistic plaque to a shovel and cleaned the beach of animal offerings and abandoned human clutter.
Another time he was honored for his construction and maintenance of a boardwalk, which was washed away frequently by winter storms. That honor included a ride in a wheelbarrow (one of his tools) the entire length of the boardwalk, pushed by cheering inhabitants of the row of cottages the boardwalk fronted.
During his years of practicing law there was an organization known as “Legal Aid” which offered help free or for very little to those in need. Walter was a member and also did pro-bono work for some non-profit groups, such as a group working to provide housing for the mentally ill.
Walter has also been an usher with his daughter at All Saints Church in Pasadena for over 40 years. There is no aspect of living, spiritual, societal, or otherwise, that Walter has not touched. He embraces life and shows few signs of slowing down at current age 94.

Reprinted from the Sierra Madre Weekly