Richard J. Walter, a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of History in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. He was 85.
A specialist in Latin American history and politics, Walter was born in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., and raised in Falls Church, Va. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1961, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Stanford University in 1962 and 1966, respectively.
Walter joined the WashU faculty in 1965 and published his first scholarly monograph, “Student Politics in Argentina: The University Reform and Its Effects, 1918-1964,” in 1968. He served as chair of history from 1977 until 1981, when he received a Fulbright grant to do field research in Argentina — work that would inform his book “The Province of Buenos Aires and Argentine Politics: 1912-1943” (1985).
Walter chaired the department again from 1982-87 and served as acting chair during the 1990-91 academic year. Other books would include “Politics and Urban Growth in Buenos Aires, 1910–1942” (1993) and “The Socialist Party of Argentina, 1890–1930,” “Politics and Urban Growth in Santiago, Chile, 1891-1941” and “Peru and the United States, 1960-1975” (all 2010).
In addition to Argentina, Walter traveled extensively in Peru, at times serving — with Susana, his wife of nearly 40 years — as a translator for the Peruvian American Medical Society. After being named a professor emeritus, in 2009, he published three novels set in Argentina — “Twisted Tango” (2012), “Evita’s Revenge” (2016) and “The Fernández Case” (2020) — as well as “Redemption in Cajamarca” (2021), set in Peru.
Walter is survived by Susana and three children, Francesca Van Horne, Monica Stefanic and Patrick Lane; by nine grandchildren; and by five great-grandchildren. Visitation will take place at the Lupton Chapel, 7233 Delmar Blvd. in St. Louis, 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 22.
A campus memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. Sept. 21 in the Danforth University Center’s Goldberg Formal Lounge. In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to Forest Park Forever. To leave a remembrance, visit luptonchapel.com.