Melville Walwyn, Esq.

Obituary For Melville Walwyn, Esq.

Melville Walwyn, Esq.

Melville Graham Merlin Walwyn, Esq., of Naperville, Illinois (formerly of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) fell asleep in Jesus on January 1, 2025. Mr. Walwyn was born on May 24, 1942, the son of Frank McDonald Walwyn and Ethelie Dickenson Walwyn. Named “Merlin Graham” by his parents at birth, Mr. Walwyn was known as Merlin to his family and local island community until he retrieved his birth certificate in preparation to immigrate to the United States and to everyone’s surprise learned that his “legal registered” name was not “Merlin” but “Melville”. He continued to be called Merlin by family and Caribbean friends and Mel (short for Melville) to his US friends and acquaintances. He later added Merlin to his legal name.

Following the completion of his schooling at the Charlestown Boys School, the Charlestown Secondary School, and the St. Kitts Nevis Grammar School, he taught at the Gingerland Senior School in Gingerland, Nevis, and he is remembered for his proficiency in math and grammar. For those of you who spent more than 5 minutes in conversation with him your grammar was corrected if it fell short in any way. His siblings, children and grandchildren can painfully attest to this fact.

While on the island of Nevis, he was also a professional photographer operating his own studio, with his own dark room in Charlestown. At family, church or any function he was always behind the camera. If you turned your head or scowled he would say, “if that’s how you want your picture, so be it - - but it would look so much better if you smiled”. He loved music and had the gift of playing by ear with no formal training because he refused to let the music teachers hit his knuckles, which was a common means of correction in Nevis for playing wrong notes.

Mr. Walwyn earned his undergraduate degree in business and accounting from Howard University, Washington, D.C. in 1970, and attained his law degree from the University of Baltimore Law School in 1973. He was admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, where he practiced as a utilities lawyer at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the law firm of Reed Smith Shaw & McClay, and the Washington Gas & Light Company before entering private practice.

He first partnered with William G. Dade, and Trevor Edwards in the partnership of Dade, Edwards & Walwyn, then Dade, Harris & Walwyn with Rev. Earl L. Harris in Harrisburg, PA before establishing his more than twenty-five year solo general practice in Harrisburg, PA. He twice won Democratic party candidacy for elective judicial office on the Common Pleas Court of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He also served actively in the Dauphin County Bar Association and the Keystone/Harrisburg Black Attorneys Association.

He was a lifelong Seventh Day Adventist and actively served as a Pathfinder in his youth attending church camporees throughout the Caribbean islands and attaining lifelong friendships. He continued in adulthood to serve in leadership at the Hillside S.D.A. Church in Harrisburg, PA as Treasurer and Sabbath School Superintendent, and at the Naperville S.D.A. Church in Naperville, IL also as Sabbath School Superintendent. He was devoted in his fellowship of faith, informally volunteering his means, energy and talents whenever and wherever needed.

Mr. Walwyn, the sixth of eight children, is predeceased by his parents, Frank and Ethelie Walwyn; by his brother, Urbane St. Clair Walwyn, and his sister-in-law, Violet Ursula Anslyn Walwyn; by his brothers, Lloyd Aubrey Alexis Walwyn, Vernon Carlyle Walwyn and by his brother in-law, Noel A. Roper.

Mr. Walwyn is bereaved by his daughter, Sonia Marie Walwyn of Naperville, IL; his son, Jarvas Adair Walwyn (LaShawn) of Southington, CT; his granddaughter, Taylor Grace Walwyn and his grandsons, Victor Duquesne Reid, Tylan Adair Walwyn and Avery Ryan Walwyn.

He is also survived by his sisters: Sylvia Theodora James (Avil), Myrtle Amethyst Roper, Carol Lanthie Brazier (Anthony); his brothers: Kenrick Earle Walwyn (Janice), and Alwin Leo Massicott (Joan) and his sisters in-law, Martha Moore Walwyn and DeMaris Maria Wiggley Walwyn; as well as a host of nieces, nephews, and scores of cousins.

Mr. Walwyn will forever be remembered for his profound kindness to everyone he met; his compassionate and loving heart, yet most important, his love for his Savior and his willingness to win souls for Christ. Mr. Walwyn never met a stranger. We look forward to seeing him again “…In the Sweet By and By.”

A visitation will be held from 9am until 11am on January 7, 2025 at Hinsdale S.D.A. Church, 201 N Oak St, Hinsdale, IL with interment at Naperville Cemetery, Naperville, IL. Memorial services in Harrisburg will be held at 11:00 am on January 19, 2025 at Hillside S.D.A. Church, Harrisburg, PA.

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