Chase Alumni Association

John Leslie Walker, Sr., one of the first African-American Vice Presidents at Chemical Bank, died in North Carolina on January 5, 2024. He was 90.

Born in South Carolina, Walker's family moved to Morristown, NJ,  where he attended Morristown High School. He met his wife while attending Wilberforce University. They married before he joined the U.S. Army. Walker joined Chemical as a loan officer. While serving at the Bank, he received advanced degrees from Rutgers and Harvard University. After retiring from Chemical Bank, the U.S. Senate confirmed him as a Deputy Secretary of Commerce for the Clinton Administration.   Walker was a religious man, attending church every Sunday and serving as a Church Steward, Treasurer and Sunday School Superintendent.  He was also a Boy Scout Troop leader and, a Mason. He and his wife moved to Dover, DE, where he became a Professor at Delaware State University and, for 20 years, Chairman of the Board of Wilberforce University. Walker moved to Waxhaw, NC in 2010, where he and his wife, Mary, joined their two children and six grandchildren, all of whom survive him.