Walter E. Ohnemus

Waltham – As Waltham's Superintendent of Public Buildings Walter Ohnemus was known for his integrity, fairness, affability and knowledge of the trades. He kept an even keel and was well respected by those he worked with and by those over whom he held authority. He never wasted a day by not having a ready smile and helpful advice.

And while his calm demeanor could be tested it was done only at great risk. Walter's character was forged long before he took the job with the city and one quickly learned not to mistake his unruffled bearing for any sort of weakness.

February 23, 1945 was a Friday and it was the day that AP photographer Joe Rosenthal took the iconic photo of six United States Marines raising the American flag over Mount Suribachi . . . the highest point on the barren island of Iwo Jima and the place where fierce fighting had raged on the sea and on land for the previous five days and nights without a break.

Back then Walter was a Marine corporal and he had a perfect vantage point to see the flag raising and listen to the roar of approval from his fellow Marines across the island. The problem with his view was that he was lying on a stretcher on the beach awaiting evacuation after having been badly wounded earlier in the day. And while mortar rounds rained down around him Walter knew that if he survived the battle that every day after would be a gift. He was nineteen.

And so in 1946 when the United States no longer needed his services he left the Marine Corps with his head held high and a slight gait in his step and a Purple Heart that be brought home to show his parents who'd been praying and worrying every day for years. Walter came home with his fellow veterans to help rebuild the country . . . and the world . . . without complaint.

Walter had graduated early from the Waltham Trade School before he joined the service and when he came home he took a job as a carpenter with the city before striking out on his own in 1950 working as a general contractor. In 1966 he took the head job in the city's building department and retired to Squam Lake in New Hampshire in 1987. That was a place where Walter found great peace, light, joy and refreshment . . . and it was a lifetime away from that Friday on the beach at Iwo.

The best part of Walter's life began on October 12, 1949 when he married his sweetheart, Jean C. Rooney, in Saint Mary's Church. The couple lived in Waltham all their lives until retirement. Walter E. Ohnemus, Jr. was 90 when he died on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 at his home in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.

He was born in Waltham on October 13, 1925, one of nine children born to the late Walter E. and Nellie (Sluyski) Ohnemus.

In addition to his post retirement golf game and Mr. Fixit projects around the house and around the neighborhood Walter took two very special trips back to Iwo Jima. The first trip with his son Ted, a retired Marine colonel, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the battle in 1995 that became a cathartic experience for both men and the second ten years later with his wife Jean. He found the place where he'd been wounded and where he lost a buddy he'd been with since Parris Island . . . and he was finally able to say good-bye to his friends on a sandy sun-washed place called Red Beach.

In addition to his wife of sixty-six years, Jean, he leaves his children, Joyce Robillard and her husband, Richard, of Kennebunk, Maine, Jean Hawkins and her husband, Michael, of Amherst, Jane Driscoll and her husband, Michael, of Watertown and Walter E. 'Ted' Ohnemus, III and his wife, Jodi, of Waltham; his grandchildren, Leslie Robillard, Johanna, Joshua and Garry Hawkins, Sarah Johnson, June Weeks, Walter E. 'Ted' Ohnemus, IV and Julie Lazdins; his sisters and brothers, Marguerite Sullivan of Maine, Edward Ohnemus of California, Bernard Ohnemus of Waltham, Janet McAlpine of New Hampshire and Eleanor Falzone of Waltham; five great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

Walter was also a brother of the late Elizabeth Pope, Dorothy Carroll and Chester Ohnemus.

Family and friends will honor and remember Walter's life by gathering in Saint Mary's Church, 133 School Street, Waltham on Tuesday, August 30th where his Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham.

Memorial donations may be made to the National Museum of the Marine Corps, 18900 Jefferson Davis Highway, Triangle, VA 22172.

. . . Semper Fidelis.