Walter Alonzo Friend passed away in his home at the Village at Duxbury on April 29,
2017. Walter was born on July 30, 1026, the only son of Walter and Viola Friend. He was raised in Melrose, Massachusetts where his grandfather and great uncle founded and established their successful company, Friend’s Baked Beans. Walter would soon become Vice President of Advertising at the family business after attending Babson School of Business. He attended high school at the Choate School in Connecticut and then enrolled at Dartmouth College. But with the country at war in 1944, he made the decision to enlist in the U.S. Army on his 18th birthday. As a corporal, he served as a paratrooper in the 152nd Army Airborne, Anti- Aircraft Battalion, first in the Philippines and then in Japan. Walter developed a passion for jazz music in his teens and while at Choate, learned to play the drums. While serving, he played the drums in an army swing band that would travel to towns and bases around Japan in a train boxcar, memories he always cherished and that would later come to define him in later years, as he continued performing professionally. More recently, Walter would sit in with Kenny Wenzel’s band at Martinis in Plymouth on Tuesday Jazz Nights and perform with his own groups of eclectic local musicians at the Village. The only thing Walter loved more than music and golf was his family. He met his wife of 67 years, Cynthia, while resuming his studies at Dartmouth after the war. After a date at Dartmouth’s Winter Carnival, he knew she was the one for him and Cynthia felt the same. They were married in Duxbury in the summer of 1948. They had four children together, Leslie, Stephen, Brenda and Bruce. In addition to being survived by them, he is survived by eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Funeral services will be private.