A few times I’ve seen references to this Doper called Wally.
Apparently, he passed away a while ago.
In memory, a smilie was made in his honor…:wally
Please tell me more about this soul.
This is a tribute page to Wally from fathom - it has links to some of his best threads. His presence on these boards was before my time and perhaps someone who knew him could tell you more about him as a person.
Wally was a sweet and funny guy, and a great story teller. My two favorite stories are Why Me and Wally the Cop. He also knew a putz when he saw one.
Wally passed on just 8 days after I got to the SDMB…and even in that extremely short time that I was here and he was still around, he made me laugh. I wish I’d had the chance to get to know him…he seemed like such a great guy. The gerbil thread linked by Gr8Kat above was the first thread by Wally that I read…
Jman
Wally passed while I was still lurking. I wish I had registered while he was still with us.
Funny, acerbic, scrappy, humble, and an all-around nice guy. I wish I could be one-tenth as good as Wally was.
Wally was funny, sweet, smart, and honest – he had a kind word for almost everyone, but he called a putz a putz when he saw one. He was just an Average Joe who made a lot of friends on a goofy message board. He died suddenly and accidentally (in a fall at a work site), leaving a wife, son, and daughter, and a lot of friends – many of whom never had the chance to meet him in real life.
So it’s just the common tragedy of losing someone who was almost universally liked. Everyone liked Wally. And a lot of people still really miss him.
Wally was hilarious and kind, but he was also skilled at calling a spade a spade. When some asshole or nimrod got out of line here or in the Pit, Wally would come back and articulately counter their invalid arguments. Then at the end, after this verbal disembowelment, he would say simply:
Putz.
Thus, the origin of the smiley in his name.
Wally also had a very long MPSIMS thread–“Signatures by WallyM7!”–where he custom-made some damn funny signatures for some of the faithful. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know whose is which, but some of my favorites are along the lines of “He was old, but he was rich, so I married the old geezer,” and “----, who can bend minds with his spoon.”
My sig didn’t come from that, though. It came from his reply to one of my more seething posts (in reply to Silo, I think) in the Pit. I adopted that as my sig, and not soon after that he passed away. 
He wrote some of the sweetest stuff in my engagement thread, too. I’m glad I printed it out for the scrapbook.
Miss you Wally!
Man, I just read the tribute page…
I never knew the man and I almost broke down in tears!
I regret not comming here sooner.
–==the sax man==–
Very funny guy, with a great sense of wit. I didn’t know him, but I still feel like I missed out on meeting someone wonderful. May he rest in peace.
I remember there was an a “smoke-out” thread, where the participants would all agree to quit smoking. I posted in the thread and a short time later, Wally was offering me words of advice and encouranging me. I had never spoken to him before, as I am more or less a lurker, but it made me feel special, that someone I hardly knew would take the time to facilitate positive changes in my life. Wally cared about people and the man had a beautifully wicked sense of humor. Even as a lurker, I still find myself missing his posts.