Walter Walker, a master canoe maker, died Monday at the age of 101.

Internationally lauded for his craftsmanship, Mr. Walker began his career with the Lakefield Canoe Co. in the early 1930s. He went on to work for firms including the J. G. Brown Boat Co., Sailcraft, the Canadian Canoe Co, the Peterborough Canoe Co. and Rilco Industries.

He also crafted a canoe for Prince Andrew, Duke of York, in 1977 when the prince was an exchange student at Lakefield College School.

He leaves behind his wife Maxine, two daughters, two stepsons, nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

John Summers, general manager for the Canadian Canoe Museum on Monaghan Rd., said Mr. Walker's influence as a canoe builder cast a wide net in the area.

"He was intimately involved with the same thing we're intimately involved with, canoes," Summers said.

Mr. Walker moved from company to company as the canoe building business shifted, Summers said.

His method of canoe workmanship lent itself to a more industrial approach to canoe building, Summers said. His canoes were labour-intensive and expensive to make, he said.

"The thing that distinguished his work is the care he took in doing it," Summers said.

Mr. Walker taught local canoe builders his trade and is featured on a video that plays in the gallery at the Canadian Canoe Museum.

"One of the things that he was good at was sharing what he did," Summers said.

"He's gone, but not gone. Visitors meet him every day."

He was the first inductee as canoe builder emeritus at the Canadian Canoe Museum.

In 2003 he was inducted into the Stairway of Excellence at Galt Collegiate Institute in Cambridge.

NOTES: A visitation will be held at the Hendren Funeral Home in Lakefield today from 2 to 4 p. m. and from 7 to 9 p. m.... A funeral for Walter Walker will be held tomorrow at 1 p. m. at the Lakefield Baptist Church.