Background on Carl Walz
Carl Walz was a high school teacher in the town of Montague, Mass., in May 1942 when his status as a conscientious objector cost him his career. Born on Aug. 19, 1909, Walz was the third of four children born to Henry and Anna Walz, owners of a shoe store in Easthampton, Mass., and German-speaking emigrants from Austro-Hungary.
Having embarked on a career in education in Northampton by the early 1930s, Walz was hired to teach Latin and German at Turner's Fall High School by late in the decade. By the time the United States entered the Second World War, he had earned tenure, but nevertheless, after he registered as a conscientious objector his contract was rejected for renewal and he was dismissed from the faculty. The Montague School Committee claimed that his dismissal was due to a "marked decrease" in demand for German, a non-required subject, and they insisted that his other courses had simply been assigned to "higher priority" teachers. Walz, however, was unpersuaded. With support from the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union he sued the Committee for wrongful dismissal. He was apparently unsuccessful.
In 1943, Walz returned to his parents' home on Chapman Ave., in Easthampton, while he reestablished himself. He married Anna Bliss McConnell in July 1943, and after the war's end lived briefly in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Within a few years, though, he was again living in Easthampton, working as a carpenter. He died in Northampton on Apr. 3, 1998, and is buried in Brookside Cemetery in Easthampton.
