Donald Walker, Principal of El Toro High, Dies at 53

Donald Walker, principal of El Toro High School since 1979, died suddenly Monday morning, shortly after being taken to the emergency room of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.

The Orange County coroner’s office said death was caused by a congenital heart disorder.

Walker was taken to the hospital at 7:10 a.m. and died at 7:45 a.m. He was 53.

A resident of Huntington Beach, Walker had a long association with high schools in that city before becoming principal of El Toro High. Walker was also well known in high school athletics, having served in several coaching positions and as an athletic director.

Walker was the current South Coast League representative to the Southern Section of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body for high school sports in Southern California.

Officials with the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, of which El Toro High School is a part, were shocked and saddened by Walker’s sudden death, said Ski Harrison, assistant to the superintendent.

“He was a wonderful man who deeply cared about his school and his students,” Harrison said. “He was well liked by everyone, and he’d served as head of that school for a very long time, seeing it through its growing pains. He really did a fine job, and he had an outstanding reputation in education.”

Walker earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from the UC Berkeley in 1960 and his master’s degree in education from Cal State Long Beach in 1968. He began his teaching career at Hawthorne High School, where he was a physical education instructor in 1960-62.

He taught physical education and coached baseball at Westminster High in 1962-65, when he joined the faculty at Huntington Beach High School. During his 12 years at Huntington Beach High, he served as a physical education teacher, a varsity baseball coach, athletic director, dean of attendance and assistant principal.

After leaving Huntington Beach High in 1977, Walker was an assistant principal at Marina High for two years. He became principal of El Toro High in 1979.

Walker was married and had five children. Funeral arrangements were pending.