Walton, Jesse deLafayette, Jr., 2010 November 15

This is a Living History interview with J.D. Walton, class of 1950, conducted by Marilyn Somers on November 15, 2010 at his home in Atlanta, Georgia. The subject of the interview is the interviewee’s life and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Walton was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1925. When he was about three or four years old, his family moved to Atlanta so that his father could take the manager position at the newly opened S&W Cafeteria on Peachtree Street. Mr. Walton did not know his paternal grandparents very well, but he was very close with his paternal grandparents, who they visited in North Carolina several times a year. Mr. Walton had one sister, who was twelve years his junior. His parents were members at Druid Hills Baptist Church. Mr. Walton attended school at Morningside Elementary School, O’Keefe Junior High School, and Boys High School. While growing up, Mr. Walton enjoyed art, going to the movies and trapping in his neighborhood. Mr. Walton was also a Boy Scout, although he did not finish and become and Eagle Scout. His only job growing up was delivering the Saturday Evening Post. After high school, Mr. Walton joined the Navy because at that time, World War II was in full swing, and Mr. Walton did not want to get drafted. He was very interested in airplanes and had hopes of joining the Navy Air Corps and being a pilot. His eyesight was a problem, and he went to radio school for the Navy instead. He was sent to Patuxent River, Maryland, where he lived with one of his commanders. With his radio training, Mr. Walton worked communications on planes in the Pacific Arena once the war was over. When he got out of the Navy, he qualified for the GI Bill and chose to go to school at Georgia Tech because he was still very interested in technology after his radio training. He toyed with the idea of studying aerospace engineering, but after his first year, he chose ceramic engineering. During his college years, he met his future wife Jane on Lake Rabun, while she was studying at the University of Georgia. After graduating, Mr. Walton won a competition with the Ferro Company, where he worked in research and development for almost three years. After that, he moved on to work in the Ceramic Engineering division of the Engineering Experiment Station at Georgia Tech, where he stayed for over thirty years. During that time, Mr. Walton did a lot of research concerning ceramics and their relation to radar and missiles for the military. His work took him all over the country, and to the Pyrenees and Italy. He also did the negotiations to get a solar furnace for Georgia Tech to do experiments with. Mr. Walton had an impressive research career, and a lot of his research was fundamental to science, and his work made a lot of news. Mr. Walton and Jane had four children and nine grandchildren.