Walter has been married for 25 years to his native California sweetheart Cindy that he met while working for Litton in Los Angeles. Cindy wanted mountains if she was to live in Texas so the Austin area Hill Country was the closest he could provide. Walt and Cindy were never blessed with children.

Walter is an accomplished woodworker with hand tools and has won first place ribbons in the Los Angeles State Fair competition for a hand carved rocking chair. He is an avid reader of mystery novels and sees travel with his wife as an unscripted adventure which, of course, has to include shopping. Walter and Cindy are fine art collectors of original oil paintings and often plan trips to galleries in Carmel, Palm Springs, Scottsdale or New York to improve on the collection and, of course, do some shopping.

Walter doesn't build racing engines anymore and long ago traded in his Corvette when his wife no longer thought it was the acceptable image for a married man. He still regrets having ever sold his first 55 Chevy and still loves the thrill of speed, but now watches it on the NASCAR circuit. The days of bone jarring stiff suspensions have given way to the comfortable seats and suspensions of road cars. He still misses the days of sitting with some beer in a buddy's GTO convertible at the Jefferson Drive-In but now settles for driving the California coast or taking day trips to the Santa Barbara area to sample the wines in all the local vineyards.