Donald Walker won a special election runoff on May 3, 1994 to become the 12th Mayor of Warner Robins. Walker’s suicide on Monday shocked the whole city and is making national headlines, but it is important that we here in Warner Robins remember Donald Walker not as the Mayor who committed suicide five weeks before his latest re-election bid was to end, but as the man who led and guided this city over the last 15 years.

Thousands, if not millions, of people who read of Mayor Walker’s untimely demise will never know what he has done for the city. To most of them, this is just a small town in Georgia; some people who are particularly attentive to the news may also recognize Warner Robins as the only city in the world with Little League Baseball and Softball World Series titles, but they will never know about the annexation, the growth, or the prosperity that Mayor Walker helped bring to Warner Robins.

Between Donald Walker’s victory in the special election runoff and his death on Monday were 5,627 days. We should remember those 5,627 days, not the one tragic day on which Walker died. His legacy for this city will not be as the Mayor who committed suicide, but as the Mayor who brought Warner Robins into the 21st Century and positioned it to become the economic and population center of Middle Georgia.

From talking to people who have been in Warner Robins since before Walker took office, few could have imagined the growth that the city has experienced over the last 15 years. Warner Robins used to be a small town just south of Macon with an Air Force Base; now, it is on a trajectory to become the economic powerhouse of the midstate. It is telling that the three candidates who were running against Mayor Walker all praised his work, and where he brought the city over the last 15 years. They have all stated that they wish to build on what Walker has already done, by further positioning Warner Robins for economic and population growth in the future. They were not running against Mayor Walker’s job performance; they were running to build on his legacy.

It has been said that Mayor Walker’s life was focused on his faith, then his family, and then the city of Warner Robins. Looking at his work for the city of Warner Robins, it is hard to doubt the truth of that statement. Please do not let those 5,627 days be overshadowed by one sad, tragic day.