Walter F. Sheble ’48

Walt died Feb. 9, 2023, at age 96 following a long struggle with dementia.

Born in Chestnut Hill, Pa., Walt prepped at Germantown Academy. At Princeton, where his brother Jack was in the Class of 1951, Walt was a member of Colonial Club and business manager of the Sovereign. He graduated with high honors from the Woodrow Wilson School before earning both his J.D. and LL.M. at George Washington University. “I learned at Princeton to study the situation carefully if you want to influence the decision and move it,” wrote Walt in our 50th-reunion yearbook. “Then work your tail off to make it. Move on to your next project but don’t look back too much.”

Walt was on the advance team for the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and he served as a consultant to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. His contributions to public service were broad, ranging from testifying at congressional hearings to establish the Federal Public Defender’s Office and gain voting rights for D.C. residents while chair of the D.C. chapter of the Junior Bar Association, to negotiating with the Soviet Union and North Vietnam to get packages to prisoners of war in Hanoi while special assistant to the postmaster general.

From 1970 to 1988, Walt worked at the Inter-American Development Bank. In retirement, he spent time in nature, both wandering trails at home and abroad, and gardening.

Walt is survived by his wife of 67 years, Nancy; son Brooke; daughters Rebecca Sheble-Hall and Meggan Sheble; and two grandchildren. The Class of 1948 sends its sympathies in remembrance of a gentleman and fine public servant.