Henry Herman Walbesser, Jr.

Henry Herman Walbesser, Jr. was born the only child of Florence Schoenl and Henry Walbesser on May 9, 1935 in Buffalo, New York. He left this life on January 1, 2022.  A visitation with the family will be 4-6pm, Tuesday, January 4, 2022 at Grace Gardens Funeral Home.  The family will have a private burial at Oakwood Cemetery.

He began his college days at the University of Buffalo where he met his future wife Diane Walker in a chemistry lab. He got his BA from Buffalo State University in 1958, He and Diane were married in 1958 and moved to College Park, Maryland where Henry learned to love teaching and doing research while getting his Master’s Degree and then his PH.D. from the University of Maryland. He began his teaching with a summer session at Washburn University then on to the University of Texas in Austin. While working there his first son, Henry H. Walbesser, III was born. At UT he taught mathematics and was put on a team to assemble their first computer. He worked on computers the rest of his professional life. After 2 years in Texas, he was called to come back to the Washington, D.C. area to work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He did not want to give up his university teaching, so he worked part time at the University of Maryland and part time at AAAS. Both positions were very interesting. He loved his graduate students and at the same time got a chance to work with some of the outstanding scientists in the world as they came to help develop new mathematics material at AAAS.

Summers were spent taking his family to various universities for the summer writing sessions. By this time, the family included a daughter Kathleen. After it became apparent that holding two positions were very hard to do, Henry left the AAAS and concentrated on his work at the University of Maryland. Summers allowed some free time to do some interesting work, like setting up the National Fire Academy in a remote area in northern Maryland. His last son, James was born just before Henry went to Uruguay for the second time to work on a Fulbright grant to help teachers there learn to use everyday items to teach science to elementary students. Henry and Diane took their family with them when he spent 2 summers in Malaysia working with educators from various Asian countries in a government sponsored programs there. He taught and held various positions while working in both the University of Maryland in College Park and also in UM, Baltimore. Finally in 1992 Henry retired from the University of Maryland and accepted a position at Baylor University as Dean of the Graduate School. He worked at Baylor until he again retired.

He and Diane enjoyed their retirement by taking almost 30 cruises so they could see more of the world. In his final years Henry developed Dementia and he and Diane moved to the Delaney at Lake Waco where they met and became friends with many new people. He is survived by his wife Diane, his son Henry Walbesser, III and wife Mindy, His daughter Kathleen Watkins, and his son James and his wife Gisele, and his grandchildren Lily Riehn, Max Walbesser, Heidi Walbesser, Austin Workman, Kyle Workman, and Sarah Watkins.

Registry for Henry Walbesser, Jr.