Grant “Spike” Arthur Walker

Grant “Spike” Arthur Walker: November 24, 1950 – March 21, 2025

LONGVIEW- Grant Arthur “Spike” Walker passed peacefully in Longview, WA on 21 March 2025 at 11:24 AM.  He was 74 years old.

Spike was born to Lorna M. and Robert B. Walker on 24 November 1950 and grew up in Yacolt, WA., where he embraced athletics and the outdoors.  In wrestling, he was undefeated in the heavyweight division throughout high school and set a record in the shot put.

He took his athletic prowess to Spokane Falls Community College and Oregon State University. During his college career, his 5-foot-11, 275-pound frame helped him set national shotput records that qualified him for the Olympic trials. He’s since been inducted into three halls of fame in Washington state.

Upon graduation from Oregon State University in 1973 with a B.A. in Education.  He then attended a deep-sea diving school, which led him to work in the oilfields off the coast of Louisiana. He spent time balloon logging on the Hoh River outside of Forks.  He also utilized his education as a teacher at Forks Elementary. While living in Alaska, he took a ferry to Skagway, hiked the 33-mile Chilkoot Trail with his younger brother (Robert W. Walker), and then flew into Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, where he bought a 17-foot canoe and spent a month alone paddling 1,000 miles of the Yukon River. Then he sold the canoe to Native Americans and hitchhiked home.

Spike would often describe his greatest adventure as crabbing in Alaska.  He secured his first job as a deckhand in 1978 on one of the largest boats in the Alaskan fleet.  He fished for 9 years and then settled in to start writing about the Alaskan crabbing profession.  His first book, “Working on the Edge” (1991), is a culmination of his eight-year tenure fishing in waters as far-flung as the Bering Sea near the Russian border — as well as exhaustive research and interviews with other deckhands, skippers, widows, and the like.  The book inspired the creation of “Deadliest Catch”.

Spike’s other books include “On the Edge of Survival” (2010), “Coming Back Alive” (2002), and “Nights of Ice” (1999).

Spike was preceded in death by his father, Robert B. Walker (1989, Clatskanie), mother, Lorna M. Walker (2004, Clatskanie), nephew Christoper E. Miller (2020, Portland), and sister Sheryl V. Miller (2021, Seaside).  He is survived by Holley J. Martinez (sister – Cypres, TX), brother, Robert W. Walker (brother – Ohio) who is active duty Army, Wendy (Chicago), and niece, Mirriam “Mary” D. Hargett (Seaside, OR).