HIGHTSTOWN, N.J. — Robert Gill Walker, 89, died Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, of complications from emphysema in Hightstown, N.J. He was a long-time resident of Princeton, N.J., and Menemsha, Mass.

Walker was born and raised in Meadville, which was founded by his ancestor, David Mead, and where his grandfather, Col. Lewis Walker, started what became Talon Inc., the first company in the world to develop the zipper. Col. Walker had attended Allegheny College, graduating in 1877, and married Adelaide Delamater of Meadville. Their son and Walker’s father, Lewis Walker Jr., married Martha Gill of Meadville. Talon has been credited with saving Meadville from the worst of the Depression.

Robert Gill Walker graduated from The Taft School and Princeton University, Phi Beta Kappa, Class of 1941. At Princeton, he was a member of Cottage Club and the Triangle Shows of 1938 and 1939. During World War II he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve on the USS Langley. Walker went to Yale Law School and joined Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay of Pittsburgh. In 1952, he was employed by the Intelligence Bureau of the Department of State and then entered the U.S. Foreign Service, serving from 1957 to 1966 in U.S. embassies in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Though Walker had not lived in Meadville since he left for school, his heart remained there, as did all his growing-up memories. He stopped visiting after his brother, Lewis Walker III, who succeeded their father as head of Talon, died in 1973, and the family house on Grove Street was regretfully sold.

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Barbara Martin Walker; his children, Mead Walker and his wife, Barbara August Walker, of Downington, Polly Walker and her husband, Sean Owen, of Idyllwild, Calif., Tertius Gill Walker and his wife, Bonnie Scheibman, of New York, N.Y., Martin Walker and his wife, Mercedes Diaz, of Ridgewood, N.J., Nicholas Walker and his wife, Beatrice Upenieks, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Jennet Walker and her husband, John Auerbacher, of Scarsdale, N.Y.; 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Also surviving him are Cynthia Soles Jamplis of Woodside, Calif., and Laurene Schumacher of North Palm Beach, Fla., the widow of Lewis Walker III.

In addition to his brother, Walker was predeceased by his cousin, Adelaide Soles Kirkbride, also of Woodside.

A memorial service was held in his honor on Nov. 14 at the Nassau Club in Princeton.

Donations in his memory can be made to the World Federalist Movement and The Washington International School (Washington, D.C.). An online Guest Book can be accessed through Legacy.com.

Arrangements were under the direction of Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.