Edwin J. Walters was raised in a family that had little more than love to share, a family friend said. But later, as he became a successful businessman, that experience led him to help people in need. “He helped everyone financially,” said William Kaper Jr., a family friend for 38 years. Walters believed that being born with so little gave him a “a design in life to assist other people,” Kaper said. Mr. Walters, 81, of Barrington Hills, former owner of E. Walters and Co. in Elk Grove Village and Accudyne Inc., of Janesville, Wis., died Tuesday, Feb. 8, in Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, Barrington, of complications from pneumonia. Born Edwin Wasniewski and raised in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Mr. Walters recalled how his mother once said she didn’t have 10 cents to buy him a model airplane, Kaper said. After he graduated from Harrison High School, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. After his discharge in 1946, he studied engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology while he worked as a machinist. A few years later he started his own business, E. Walters and Co. He changed his last name for business purposes, his friend said. He constructed a building for his business in Elk Grove Village in the late 1960s, and the company grew to 300 employees. Fifteen years ago, he purchased Accudyne Inc. His companies, which specialized in precision machining and assembly, held several Defense Department contracts and did work for General Motors and Ford Motor Co. By the time he sold the businesses in the 1990s, they had almost 1,500 employees. Survivors include his daughter, Barbara Verdung; a son, Randy; a brother, Richard Wasniewski; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday in Ahlgrim Family Funeral Home, 201 N. Northwest Highway, Palatine. Prayers will be said at noon Saturday in the funeral home, followed by a 1 p.m. mass in St. Anne Catholic Church, 120 N. Ela St., Barrington.
