Walter C. Mcentire

Walter McEntire, age 66, passed on July 4, 2022, after an extended illness and hospitalization in New Britain, Connecticut  where he had lived and worked for many years. Walter had a long and distinguished career in television broadcasting and production that spanned 45 years. He shared his professional passions with aspiring broadcasters for 15 years at Connecticut School of Broadcasting. Walter had retired in late 2021, purchased a new home along the Gulf Coast in South Texas, and was looking forward to a new life in his retirement.

The son of Thomas Fulcher McEntire and Doris Carr McEntire, both deceased, he is survived by sister Susan McEntire Kern and her husband Kurtis Kern of Weston, Missouri; niece Kristi Claybrook (Joseph Claybrook); nephew John Kern; great-nephews Eli and Benjamin Claybrook along with a host of cousins, friends and colleagues who will miss him dearly.

Walter grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, surrounded by a large, loving family. He graduated with honors from Winnetonka High School following a year abroad with American Field Service in Argentina. That experience helped form a lifelong love of travel and an appreciation of cultural diversity.  In 1976 he received a BA, with honors, in journalism from the University of Georgia where he majored in Radio, TV and Film.

He returned to his hometown where he joined KBMA-TV as a producer/production assistant. At KBMA, Walter produced an hour-long weekly children’s program called “The Mother Nature Show”. Soon, he ventured into live sports which became his passion. Wearing many hats, he operated cameras, directed shoots and edited projects for the station. From 1978 to 1980, Walter worked with WDAF-TV producing and directing for the Royals Baseball Network.

In 1981, he moved to WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut and established a life in New England where he lived and worked until his death. Recognizing Walter’s sizable talent, Otis Elevators hired him to produce the company’s corporate videos, enabling him to travel extensively. He circumnavigated the globe twice, visiting far-flung places such as the Egyptian pyramids and China. After a number of years with Otis, Walter launched a successful production company, Big Bang Productions, and ultimately landed at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting (CSB) where he held the position of Lead Television Instructor. He created a collaboration between CSB and the Rock Cats, a New Britain AA baseball team. When the Rock Cats moved to Hartford and became the Yard Goats, Walter was instrumental in designing both the new stadium and the control booth for broadcasting games. Working as broadcast director at the stadium, Walter would select the most talented students from CSB and put them to work at Dunkin Donuts Park shooting and directing the live-broadcast games. In 2019, he was awarded minor league baseball’s Broadcaster of the Year.

A much loved and respected teacher, Walter worked through pain and the affliction of a longterm illness to keep the program on track. Former students report that they would not be working in the broadcast field had it not been for the mentoring and instruction Walter generously offered. He was known to go above and beyond in his mentorship. One former student who had been selected to work for the first time as a cameraman at an upcoming game, recalled expressing his nervousness to Walter. Ever the encouraging mentor, Walter simply replied, “I wouldn’t have brought you in if I didn’t think you could do it.”

Friends, colleagues and students often used words like brilliant, creative, thoughtful, and kind to describe Walter; however, they also noted he was a tough but fair instructor, and highly demanding of his students. He expected the highest standards from his both students and crew.

Walter was well known for a wry wit and a clever sense of humor as well as his ability to tell a memorable tale. He often regaled friends and colleagues with humorous stories about his family and life experiences.

He loved entertaining and holidays. For Halloween, he transformed the exterior of his New Britain home into a spooky treat for the neighborhood, complete with light displays, fog machines, skeletons and graveyards. Christmas brought an explosion of lights and festivity. He especially loved his Borzoi dogs and enjoyed antique collecting, and southwestern art.

Along with his passion for teaching, baseball, Borzois and production, Walter developed a love of line dancing. Over nearly two decades he grew into an accomplished dancer and joined a large community of enthusiastic line dancers who often performed around the country at clubs, fairs and other events. As one of his longtime friends and fellow dancers said, “Save me a dance in Heaven.”