In the first half of the 1960s, Water Halverson served as a vice principal at Central High School. He stopped for a moment so someone could take his picture. A similar photo appeared in the school’s yearbook.

Walter L. Halverson chose a career in the military and in education that shaped his entire life and affected the lives of many Central High School students.

“I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me and said ‘he saved my life,’” said Sonja H. Frey, Mr. Halverson’s older daughter. “Everything he did, he did extra.”

It’s clear that Mr. Halverson, who was born in 1914 in Grafton, N.D., treasured family, education and self-reliance. Pictures taken of him throughout his life as a student, soldier, educator and parent usually show a man of slight build standing ramrod straight with close-cropped hair and wearing a hint of a smile.

Mr. Halverson earned a scholarship to the University of North Dakota, graduating in 1937 with a bachelor’s degree in education and a commission as an Army second lieutenant. Later in life, he graduated from the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Raised by family members who passed him from home to home, Mr. Halverson knew what he wanted when he met Mary Bailey. That was in 1938 when he came to Pawnee City, Neb., as part of the Civilian Conservation Corp. In 1940, the two married, and it was the start of a wonderful life together.

In 1955, the four Halversons settled in St. Joseph after Mr. Halverson retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel. In 1958, he became Central High School’s new vice principal.

Both of his daughters went to Central and knew their father wouldn’t be easy.

“I knew I had to be Pollyana perfect,” said Mary Judith Frye, the younger daughter.

Most people don’t know the man had a softer side. He loved to read poetry as well as hear and dance the waltzes of Johann Strauss, both sisters said.

In the fall of 1966, he became a teacher at Central until he retired in 1975.

He had avocations, too, including being a bird hunter.

He literally brought home pheasants and quail, Mrs. Frye said.

“I learned years and years ago, never shine brass, polish boots or clean their birds,” Mrs. Halverson said with a chuckle. She became a good cook but said her husband’s favorite foods were still hamburgers or beef, American fries, fresh garden salads and cherry pie.

He never talked about the war until a granddaughter, Becky Frye Bloomer, interviewed him for school. From those conversations, family learned he came home in 1946 with a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service. He’d been involved in the Battle of the Bulge, been on the edge of the fighting for the bridge at Remagen on the Rhine River, helped at the infamous concentration camp Dachau and personally met generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton. The granddaughter’s last question was his opinion of war.

“Wars are ridiculous, asinine,” Mr. Halverson told her. “If you can’t maneuver around a table and get things settled, war isn’t the answer.”

The husband, parent, educator and decorated veteran died at home on Sept. 18 at the age of 94.

Marshall White can be reached

at marshall@npgco.com.