In 2018, we will build the 150,000th Walker Mower. Well over a year ago, we began to plan for the Walker Family Reunion III to celebrate this milestone on July 13 through 15, 2018. For all of you that attended Family Reunion I and II, I am thinking you have good memories of celebrating the 50,000th and 100,000th Walker. For those who have not attended, we think you would have a great time if you are able to come to Colorado this July.

Our first mower prototype was done as a design challenge and “hobby project”, because at that time we had no grand plan to get into the lawn mower manufacturing business.

With my mother’s passing in May, I have been thinking a lot about all of the upbringing that she gave me and the heritage received from her life. I write this tribute in her memory.

Sometimes things happen in patterns. This last August, within two weeks of each other, we had two 11-year-old boys and their families come to our factory for a visit and a factory tour. One was from Alabama and the other from Pennsylvania. Given a choice on other adventures they might have had, both told their parents they wanted to come to Colorado to visit the Walker factory.

Across the last 55-plus years of being in the manufacturing business, we have developed business philosophies that have helped us make progress while keeping on track. I thought it would be interesting to give our readers a distilled list of some of these philosophies. We would quickly say that our ways are not the only ways or even the best ways in all cases; we would simply suggest that our ways fit us and who we are, and they are a collection of learning from our experiences.