Walter John Kinkel

PVT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co C

Born 1920 in NY, Died 2010

Artist

Other residence(s): Brooklyn, NY; Hollis (Queens), NY; Hinesburg, VT

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: student

College education before the war: Pratt

College education after the war: Pratt, Columbia, Art Students League

Source: 603rd Camouflage Engineer Roster provided by W. Anderson; 603rd reunion mailing list; Company D With Addresses Roster; Company C roster; photo courtesy Burlington Free Press, January 11, 2010

Walter Kinkel was born on March 5, 1920 in New York City, the younger of two sons. His father was a postal clerk; Walter's German-born grandmother lived with the family in Brooklyn until 1926 when they all moved to the neighborhood of Hollis in Queens.

After graduating from high school in 1940 he went on to study art at Pratt, where he took the camouflage course that catapulted many Pratt students into the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion.

Walter was drafted on July 1, 1941 and enlisted a year or so later. He served in Europe with the 603rd, and one of his roles in the unit was as second cook. A 2010 memorial article about him in The Hinesburg Record, recalls a story that Walter had told the writer. "To make the canned stew palatable for everyone, Walter explained he'd roll out the dough thin, cut it with the rim of a can, ladle in the drained stew, and then fold it in half to make a turnover, with gravy. On a one-day pass Walter managed to distantly tour Paris from the vantage of an opera house roof, with the help of a custodian. On another occasion he visited his uncle's gravesite, also Walter J. Kinkel, at the American Argonne Cemetery in France . . . his uncle was killed in action on September 29, 1918."

When he returned home from the war, Walter went back to New York City and his interrupted studies. After graduating from Pratt with a degree in art education, he worked as head of the interior art department at Gimbels department store and studied stone sculpturing under José de Creeft at the Art Students League. He went on to graduate from Columbia University Teachers College with a master's in art education, and then taught art in the Roosevelt, Island Trees, and Bethpage school systems in Nassau County, NY for 30 years. He continued to live in the Hollis house in which he'd grown up.

On May 28, 1966 he married Muriel Sebastian, and the following year the couple took a seven-month honeymoon, touring the US in a Winnebago motorhome and concentrating on the arts and history of the places to which they travelled.

Walter designed and created liturgical banners for Holy Trinity Lutheran Church* in Hollis, where he and his family had been members since moving to Hollis in the 1920s. He also designed and donated two memorial stained-glass windows (probably after the church burned in 1974).

Walter and Muriel owned a summer home in Hinesburg, VT, about 10 miles southeast of Burlington. In 1977, Walter retired from teaching and the couple moved to Vermont full time.

There Walter and Muriel both became very active in several Masonic organizations. He was Past Master of Patriot Lodge #33 A&FM, and Most Wise Master of the Delta Chapter of Rose Croix in Scottish Rite. He was also a member of LaPlotte Chapter #64, Order of the Eastern Star and served as Worthy Grand Patron in 1989-1990. He designed and made settings for Grand Chapter sessions for 20 years. He served as President of the Treasurers Association, Secretary/Host/President of the Grand Representative Association, and President of the Past Grand Matrons and Past Grand Patrons Association. During this time he became known as "Mr. Sunshine."

According to the memorial article in The Hinesburg Record, Walter always had life goals and one of his was to reach the age of 90, and carry the flag in the Hinesburg Fourth of July parade. He didn't quite make it, dying six months prior on January 6, 2010. Muriel died later that same year.

*The building that housed Holy Trinity is currently Masjid 'Eesa ibn Maryam (Jesus, Son of Mary Mosque).