Quentin Robert (Q.R.) Walsh

QUENTIN ROBERT (Q.R.) WALSH JR. of Denton, MD passed away on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at his home, Wilson’s Chance. The former U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran was 73 years old.

Born in Tucson, Arizona where his late father, Capt. Quentin R. Walsh, Sr. was recuperating from disabilities incurred in World War Two, Walsh was a resident of Denton from the age of four. His late mother was the former Mary Ann Knotts from a 300-year-old Eastern Shore family.  

From his earliest youth Walsh wanted to be a Marine Corps Infantry Officer, and the signs of his thinking appeared early. Much to the chagrin of his late father, young Q.R. turned the Walsh’s backyard into a labyrinth of foxholes, trenches and bunkers. These were all utilized in the “war games” he organized on a weekly basis. (Prisoners were tied to an apple tree!). 

He joined the Marines in 1964 as an enlisted man soon after graduating from St.’s Peter and Paul High School. As a combat engineer, he served in the invasion of Santo Domingo in 1965 to end its ongoing civil war. In 1966 he began a (13-month combat tour in Vietnam, becoming a defender of the much-publicized Marine firebase at Khe Sanh.

After his discharge in 1968, he entered Salisbury University, graduating in 1972 with a degree in history with a specialty in Middle Eastern history. Walsh was a prolific reader with an astounding knowledge of facts on virtually any subject. He could answer nearly every question on “Jeopardy” and readily completed New York Times crossword puzzles. 

With his college degree in 1972, Walsh returned to the Marine Corps in 1973, this time as a commissioned infantry officer. Overall during his two stints in the Marines, he served in Southeast Asia, Caribbean, Central America, and the Mediterranean as well as Marine bases in California, North Carolina and Virginia.

     As a civilian again, Walsh was a very quiet but impactful community contributor to Caroline County. Despite working full-time as “Q.R. Construction” doing skilled woodworking and restoration, he contributed extensive amounts of volunteer time to preservation projects such as the Museum of Rural Life, Linchester Mill Complex, Webb Cabin, Hog Island School, Ridgely Telephone Exchange and many other neglected heritage assets. An example is the tent-roofed octagon Garden House (c.1910), now on the Courthouse Green in Denton, that he completely restored from a very dilapidated condition in his “spare time” over a six-year period.

Simultaneously, he spent over 700 consecutive Saturdays during a 14-year period as a volunteer bringing a bit of pleasure to every patient at the Caroline Nursing Home. In that regard, he weekly purchased, with his own money, a variety of refreshments (cookies, ice cream and soft drinks), then distributed them room-to-room on a cart that he acquired for that purpose. Another example of his volunteer work involved upper Tuckahoe Creek adjacent to the state park. There, he and his friend Bobby Adams annually removed fallen trees and obstacles that impeded canoeing. Walsh was always assisting the elderly and needy with both money and labor. He was a regular donor to projects involving veterans and community projects like the Caroline Visitor Center.

Walsh had a relatively small but dedicated circle of close friends. All agree that he was one of the finest persons that they had ever met. He was diagnosed with cancer in three parts of his body in 2012. He rejected all further treatments in 2016 and entered Hospice in January 2017. Disabilities to his lungs forced his retirement from his restoration work, but he remained active and fully independent up until the week of his passing. Three words probably best describe Walsh’s adult life: Country, Friends and Community.

Mr. Walsh is survived by his sister, Bronwyn W. Zolper (Bill) of Rehoboth Beach, DE; a brother, J.O.K. Walsh of Denton; four nephews: Carl William Zolper III (Kelly), Matthew Zolper (Gia), Casey Zolper (Jaime), and Patrick Zolper (Susan); and 11 great nieces and nephews.

A memorial service and reception will be held at 12:00 o’clock on Monday, February 17th at the Museum of Rural Life in Denton where friends may visit from 11 am until the service. A luncheon will follow. The interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, if friends wish to send memorial donations in memory of Mr. Walsh, the family suggests sending them to the Caroline Historical Society, 16 N. Second Street, Denton, MD 21629.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Quentin Robert (Q.R.) Walsh, please visit our floral store.