William C. Walton, a leading groundwater researcher for decades — and the first editor-in-chief of NGWA’s technical journal, Groundwater® — passed away on February 2 in Hudson, Wisconsin.
In his professional career, Walton worked for the Illinois Water Survey, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of Minnesota, as well as serving as the executive director of the Upper Mississippi Water Basin Commission and as a consultant for numerous firms.
He wrote hundreds of scientific papers and was the author of multiple books. Among his books are Groundwater Resource Evaluation, The World of Water, Practical Aspects of Groundwater Modeling, Analytical Groundwater Modeling, Numerical Groundwater Modeling, Principles of Groundwater Engineering, and Designing Groundwater Models with Windows Software.
Walton served as the first editor-in-chief of Groundwater from 1963-1966. He was on the then-National Water Well Association’s Board of Directors from 1960-1965, serving as the technical division chairman and vice president in 1962-1963 and the technical division director in 1964-1965.
In 1996, Walton was honored with NGWA’s Keith E. Anderson Award, which acknowledges outstanding contributions made to the Association. In addition, he was later named an NGWA Honorary Member.