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Rev. Boyd N. Walton Jr., 83, a retired Elder, died Monday, March 17, 2014, at age 83, after a long illness. His charge church was Severna Park UMC. The Rev. Frances Stewart officiated at a celebration of life service at Metropolitan UMC in Severn March 29. He was interred at Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Crownsvile March, 31.

Boyd Nathanial Walton Jr. was born in Coopers, W.Va., Oct. 26, 1930, to the late Boyd N. Walton, Sr. and Viola Davis Walton, He graduated from Bluestone High School in Bramwell, W.Va., and attended West Virginia State College for two years before joining the United States Air Force. He retired from the USAF in 1973 after 22 years as a Chief Master Sergeant.

He is an alumnus of the University of Maryland, College Park and Howard University, and held Master's degrees in Social Work and Divinity. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Walton was married 52 years to his late wife, Eddie Bell Syas Walton. They had six children who survive.

His ministerial and pastoral experience spanned 44 years internationally: bi-vocationally for 30 years, and 14 years as full time clergy. He served in Louisiana, Texas, Michigan, Turkey, Germany, West Virginia and Maryland. In addition to the Air Force, for 10 years he was a social worker with the MD Department of Social Services.

Walton was first ordained in the Baptist Church in 1958. He transferred to the United Methodist Church in the Baltimore-Washington Conference in 1990, and was ordained an Elder in 1993. He served the Hagerstown Charge from 1990 to 1995, and the Homestead-Strawbridge Charge in Baltimore from 1995-1998 when he retired.

He was dedicated to community service and advocacy and held leadership positions in numerous local and national educational, religious and service-based organizations. His most treasured achievement was founding a progressive and diverse Intra-Faith church in 1971 in Berlin, Germany. The church is still active today.

He is survived by his children, Sherman G. Walton, Patricia Walton Caesar, Boyd N. Walton, III, Valerie T. Walton, David H. Walton, Carolyn Walton Lynch, and 23 grandchildren, great- and great-great-grandchildren.

Condolences may be sent to his daughter, Valerie Walton, 5 Byron Place, New Haven, CT 06515-2405.

Memorial donations may be made to Metropolitan UMC, 548 Queenstown road, Severn, MD 21144; or the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Geriatric Care Fund, Baltimore, MD.