M.W. Walter Mason Pickett 1941

Walter Mason Pickett

Walter Mason Pickett was born December 2,1885 at New Preston, Connecticut. He was the son of Charles Whittlesey Pickett and Marie Patterson Sperry. His father was a newspaper editor and his mother a writer.

He was graduated from the Dwight Grammar School in New Haven in 1900; New Haven High School in 1904; and Yale Law School in 1908. He was admitted to the Bar here in Connecticut in June 1908.

During his college years and until March 1909 he worked as a newspaper reporter. From March 1909 until February 5, 1925 he served as Assistant State's Attorney for New Haven County. On February 5, 1925 he was appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and subsequently was appointed to the Superior Court Bench and retired as Superior Court Judge on reaching the mandatory retirement age of seventy. .

He was counsel for the New Haven City School District during 1924-1925. He was also a member of the Special Committee of three appointed by Brother and Governor John H. Trumbull to investigate the Meriden School for Boys. The Mayor of New Haven appointed him to a special commission to revise the Charter and Ordinances of the City of New Haven.

He was made a Mason in the Wooster Lodge No. 79, New Haven, on March 29, 1923, and became its Master in 1928. In 1929 and 1930 he was District Deputy of the Fourth Masonic District and in 1941 He was elected and served as Grand Master of Masons in Connecticut.

On April 26, 1910 he was married to Kathryn Tomlinson Baldwin. They leave surviving them four children.

For two years he served in Company F, Second Regiment, and three years in Troop A, Cavalry C. D. G. as Sergeant.

Shyly, unobtrusively, he went about his work, giving freely of his wisdom and knowledge and his friendship to all who came to consult him. As Grand Master he leaves behind an enviable record.

He died June 24, 1961.