Walter was born in Riverside, California and moved to the Snoqualmie Valley area in 1946. As a teenager he moved to Seattle, WA graduating from West Seattle High School in 1963.

At that time he joined the Army and went to Frankfurt, Germany. After an honorable discharge he went to work at Boeing where he met his wife, Marian.

In 1971 he moved to Saigon, Vietnam where he repaired helicopters until the end of the Vietnam War in 1974.

He came back to the Seattle area and went to work at Weyerhaeuser in Snoqualmie until he got rehired back at Boeing a couple of years later. Walt and Marian opened up “The Video Factory” rental chain of stores in the Everett and Arlington area in the early 1980’s. They ran the stores until his retirement in the early 1990’s.

Walt enjoyed playing cards, pool, ping pong, arguing politics and the stock market. He also enjoyed spending time with his family, especially going to car shows with his brother, Mel, and son, Alex.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Donna Gere; sister, Linda Hills; wife, Marian; daughter, Tawnya Hills; and a close sister-in-law, Billie Jo Boyd.

He is survived by his father, Walter Hills of North Bend; his brothers, Marion Lee of Seattle, Melvin (Lisa) of Redmond and Russ (Dalene) of Nampa, Idaho; his sister, Midge of North Bend; his loving son, Alex of Arlington; nieces, Alesia Chaney and Kathy Killand; nephews, Jayson and Jeff Boyd; in addition to numerous other nieces and nephews.

Graveside services will be held at Evergreen Funeral Home and Cemetery in Everett, WA on Friday, September 23, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.