San Francisco County

Biographies

 

 

 

PERCIVAL JOHN WALKER

 

 

 

WALKER, PERCIVAL JOHN, President of the P. J. Walker Company, Incorporated, 

San Francisco, was born in Oakland, Cal., April 21, 1875, the son of John C. and Mary (Miller) Walker. His parents, who were English Canadians by birth, went to California

by way of the Isthmus of Panama, in the early fifties, and first settled in San Francisco, where Mr. John C. Walker engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes, but subsequently, his health failing, became a farmer and dairyman on the east side of the Bay. There P. J. Walker passed his early youth, and on June 24, 1903, was married in Sacramento to Miss Edith Jennings Lynn. The children of this marriage are Marjorie, Edith and Percival J. Walker, Jr.

From 1880 to 1887 Mr. Walker attended the Franklin Grammar School in Oakland and was graduated therefrom in the latter year, after which he entered the Oakland High School, but left before graduation.

      For the first few years after leaving the High School he was a little doubtful as to the career he should choose. At the age of eighteen he began to learn the bricklaying trade, partly as a preparation for the contracting business, and for two years studied law at night, with the half-formed intention of becoming a lawyer. But after some investigation of these two fields, and a closer study of himself, he concluded that the building and contracting industry possessed superior advantages, for him, at least. In this the remarkable success he has attained is ample evidence of the soundness of his youthful judgment.

      In 1895 Mr. Walker entered the contracting field in San Francisco, against a large number of competitors, and with just twelve dollars capital that he could call his own. That despite these odds he has not only more than held his own but has also actually distanced most of his rivals in the race for building contracts the present condition of his business is conclusive testimony. It is no exaggeration to say that during the sixteen years of his activity in the field of his choice he has developed the largest building business in central California. Since the fire alone he has been associated in the construction of one hundred and ten buildings, most of them important both from the contractor’s viewpoint and from that of the public. They are mostly steel-frame, fireproof structures. In Oakland Mr. Walker’s company has constructed practically very important building erected there in recent years, and has acquired a reputation for speed and efficiency in completing its contracts.

      This success has been due not only to the excellent equipment and the systematic methods for which his company is known, but largely to the aggressive, though genial, personality of which those methods are expressions. System and P. J. Walker are almost synonymous. In this he regards organization and the proper delegation of authority as the main factors, for he has learned by experience and observation that failure, or at least lack of progress, attends the inability to sense the value of those factors.

      It is worthy of note that a Walker building, that of the California Electric Works, although completely embraced by the flames was the only structure so threatened that was practically unscathed by the conflagration of 1906. The phenomenon was due largely to the fact that this building was provided with metal window frames and wire-glass, the first in San Francisco to be so equipped.

      Beyond his constructive activity Mr. Walker is especially prominent in automobile circles, and was one of the pioneer motorists of the State. As President of the California State Automobile Association, as well as of the California State Highway League, he is more than an enthusiast. He is known far and wide as an expert referee of motor contests, and recently refereed the Glidden tour, in which he added much to his already enviable reputation in this direction. He is also one of the executive committee of the American Automobile Association. He has contributed many articles, chiefly on activity in motoring circles and in road building in California, especially to The Motorist, and to The American Motorist.

      As a participant in club entertainments he was formerly in great demand, notably as a raconteur and monologist, but has left that field to his brother. For other interests than these he has allowed himself little time. His clubs are: The Bohemian, Union League and Commonwealth of San Francisco, and the Athenian, Claremont Country and Nile of Oakland. He was somewhat active in Masonic circles during the years right after reaching his majority, and became a Knight Templar, 32nd degree Mason and Shriner before his 25th year.

 

 

 

Transcribed by Gloria (Wiegner) Lane.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 394, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.  1913.

© 2007 Gloria Lane.

 

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