Nora Esmeria Grigsby Lee Walters was an Administrative Assistant at U.C. Berkeley for almost three decades. Born and raised in Panama, she arrived in the U.S. in 1957 with her G.I. husband who divorced her soon thereafter. Throughout her career at U.C. Berkeley, she was a single mother. In order to support her daughters, she typed at night for graduate students and faculty (in the days of carbon paper copies!). From 1960 to 1967, she was the Administrative Assistant for Professor George Pimentel’s CHEM Study, a program “organized to develop curricular materials to update high school science education.” After two years on the east coast, she returned to U.C. Berkeley in 1969 and worked at the College of Environmental Design until she transferred to Mathematics in 1971or 1972. She retired in 1987 to move to England with her British husband, Peter Walters, a Mathematics Professor at the University of Warwick. As a young single mother of young, Nora had thought about returning to Panama but she ultimately decided to stay in the United States in order to provide opportunities for her daughters, both of whom now work at U.C. Berkeley: Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby as Professor in the History of Art Department and Lynne Grigsby as the first woman to be Head of Library IT.
In 1993 the Mathematics Department’s included an obituary for Nora in their newsletter, referring to her famously “contagious laugh” that “filled the hallways.” “The epitome of great inner strength, she will be well-remembered and missed by all those in Mathematics who knew her.” Indeed, thirty-five years later, there are still staff and faculty on this campus who vividly remember her laughter, vitality, intelligence, and kindness, among them Math Professor Alexandre Chorin and retired L & S adviser Julianne Monroe. The latter recently wrote “Loved seeing the photo of your Mom. Her wonderful smile. Just like I remember her. Thanks for the shout out to staff. Much appreciated.”
Contributed by Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby