Howard Charles Walls Jr. (’10, ’12) was known for his hurdling, coaching and easygoing personality.

“Howard was just one of those guys everyone liked. I don’t think I ever saw him mad,” says Chris Harter (’13), a former teammate who is helping to establish a scholarship at Embry-Riddle in Walls’ honor.

Walls made a name for himself as a hurdler on the Daytona Beach Campus’ track and field team from 2006 to 2010. He was the first All-American in the campus’s track and field history and set a school record that still stands today.

Sadly, Walls, 31, of Las Vegas, Nevada, died March 4, 2018, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash. At the time of his death, he was the director of quality control and safety for Allegiant Airlines.

The track team was a tight-knit group, Harter says, and he and several other former teammates wanted to do something to remember Walls. A scholarship for student-athletes seemed to be the perfect choice.

The Howard Walls Jr. Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to an Embry-Riddle track and field student-athlete. More than $28,000 has been raised so far for the scholarship, in part through a university crowdfunding campaign. As an endowed memorial scholarship, the university is able to award a scholarship in Walls’ name each year in perpetuity.

In January 2019, Walls was inducted posthumously into the Daytona Beach Campus’ Athletics Hall of Fame.