I was probably one of Wally’s earliest associates in Los Angeles/Hollywood. In 1959 I was the tech service guy for Ampex in Los Angeles. Late one afternoon I got a call from a guy in Oregon who talked so fast and stuttered so bad that it was difficult to understand him. Eventually I got the drift that he was to record the Terry Gibbs big band that weekend in Hollywood. Wally lived in Oregon and was having someone drive down, pulling his recording equipment in a trailer.
(Later, when we were better acquainted, I learned that in college he had known the son of the man who founded U-Haul. Wally got U-Haul to custom-build a closed trailer to his specs. The entire floor of the trailer was covered by a mattress, soft riding for delicate recording equipment.)
This frantic, stuttering guy wanted to have his Ampex 351-2′s checked over and carefully aligned for the recording sessions. The next day a guy showed up with the equipment. I carefully checked out the Ampexes and put a spit shine on the alignment. It was the beginning of a long-time, supremely interesting relationship with many ups and a few downs. If you knew Wally well, there was never a dull moment in your life.