George Walker was born in 1946 on Sapelo Island, Georgia—a small Gullah Geechee community founded on the fourth largest barrier island in the 1700s, 60 miles south of Savannah, in McIntosh County. That was a popular year for births on the island, following World War II and a busy year for the only midwife on the island. Mr. Walker was unable to complete high school, which would have been helpful during his pursuit of his captain’s license. Mr. Walker was an experienced shrimper during the 1960s, prior to working as a licensed captain aboard research vessels at the University of Georgia’s Marine Institute. After retirement, Mr. Walker enjoyed spending time with his wife of over 40 years and tending to his garden; he occasionally participated in research trips until his death in 2012.  

As a shrimper, Mr. Walker recalls the decreasing shrimp prices and increasing fuel prices and regulations that forced him and others out of the industry. Before making his way up the ranks to a research vessel captain, he returned to his home on Sapelo Island to work in the kitchen of the “institute”—University of Georgia’s Marine Institute. Mr. Walker recalls one extraordinary research trip with Milton “Sam” Gray in the 1960s when they accidentally discovered a reef with a dredge 19 miles off the coast of Sapelo Island. Sam Gray was the director of the University of Georgia’s Marine Institute at the time and began cataloging invertebrates and hard-bottom reef specimens—archived at the National Museum of Natural History—until his passing in 1967. For many years Mr. Walker and others, who were the first to discover the reef, were sworn to secrecy on the location to prevent overfishing or exploitation. In 1981, the reef was designated as a National Marine Sanctuary and named in honor of Sam Gray. For decades, Mr. Walker was instrumental in the discovery and research conducted at Gray’s Reef and other research sites off the coast of Georgia, and he remained committed to environmental conservation.