Justin Walker receives the Legacy Award from Compton Woodley Airport on behalf of his grandfather, Hildreth “Hal” Walker Jr. The award was presented at the recent Air and Space Fair.
Courtesy photo
Wave Staff Report
COMPTON — Laser scientist and professor Hildreth (Hal) Walker Jr. was honored posthumously by Compton Airport with the Legacy Award at their Air and Space Fair 2025for lighting the runway for those who dream of flying.
Walker was the first person to successfully fire the KORAD-1500 Ruby Laser to the moon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 moon landing when American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans ever to land on the moon.
Walker was board chairman and co-founder, with his wife Bettye Walker of the African-American Male Achievers Network, a nonprofit corporation. A-MAN is dedicated to young African-American and other students with particular emphasis on science and mathematics.
His wife and business partner sent her appreciation for the award from South Africa, where she and her late husband established the first chapter of the National Space Society on the African continent.
“On behalf of our Walker family, I sincerely thank you again for honoring the legacy of Hildreth Hal Walker, Jr. in the county where he loved and lived,” said Bettye Walker. Their grandson, Justin Walker, received the award at the Space Fair.
Compton Woodley Airport facilitates more than 60,000 general aviation takeoffs and landings each year. The airport was originally utilized as an airfield in 1924 and is named in honor of Earl W. Woodley, who owned and operated the airport from 1936 until his death in 1962.
Today the airport, which has been owned and operated by Los Angeles County since 1966, is publicly available to general aviation aircraft 24 hours a day seven days a week and is home to 200 based aircraft, an aviation museum and several aviation-related businesses.
Bettye Davis Walker is an internationally renowned educational innovator, a former university professor and researcher who has worked with students in Europe, West Africa and, most recently, South Africa. The A-MAN STEM Program is an outgrowth of the first and only pilot educational research project that Hal Walker received and directed, which was funded by UCLA and focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for elementary school boys.
