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Randy Walker loved Southwest Florida. So much so that the Northwestern University football coach had bought a condominium in Bonita Bay a few years ago.

"I would not have been surprised if he had made this his base in retirement," said Dan Jones, a Naples resident who knew Walker through the local alumni club and brought Walker down to speak each spring.

Unfortunately, the possibility of Walker retiring here will never occur. Walker, 52, died late Thursday night of an apparent heart attack in his Wilmette, Ill., home. Jones received a phone call from an associate athletic director early Friday morning.

"It was pretty tough getting back to sleep," said Jones, who will attend Walker's funeral on Thursday morning in Evanston, Ill., with his wife Susan.

Jones, CEO of NewsBank, an archive service for newspapers and other publications, said Walker, his wife Tammy, daughter Abbey, and son Jamie, were all down in Southwest Florida in May. They were also in the area during Thanksgiving.

Walker, who came to Northwestern from Miami of Ohio in 1999, and athletic director Mark Murphy spoke to the Northwestern Alumni Club in Naples in late March. The spring visits were a yearly occurrence, with between 100 and 150 people turning out.

While Walker became the first coach to lead Northwestern to three bowl games, Jones remembered Walker for more than the wins and losses on the field.

Walker

"He's a very principled guy," Jones said, still talking of Walker in the present tense. "But he had values. He had a list of values, or goals, for the kids. The No. 1 goal is to graduate from Northwestern. The 10th one was to win the NCAA national championship. That was the last one, but the first one was to graduate."

His players listened.

While maintaining high graduation rates, Walker was able to keep the program successful after the departure of Gary Barnett to Colorado. The Wildcats shared the Big Ten title in 2000 and went to the Alamo Bowl. They went to the Motor City Bowl in 2003, and were 7-5, losing 50-38 to UCLA in the Sun Bowl this past season. His teams went 37-46.

"Northwestern is not an easy school," Jones said. "It's a demanding curriculum. There's no place to go hide."

Walker did have a health scare in October 2004. He checked himself into a hospital after experiencing chest pains. He was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle usually caused by a virus.

"I've really taken my doctor's orders to heart, because frankly, I want to see my grandkids someday," Walker said after being released two days later.

Walker's daughter, Abbey, 28, is in Paris and expecting his first grandchild.

When Walker wanted to get away with his family, Southwest Florida was usually the destination. Jones said Walker, a native of Troy, Ohio, felt at home in an area populated heavily by Midwesterners.

"He liked to play golf. He liked the beach. He liked the people down here," said Jones, a 1961 Northwestern graduate who has been coming to Southwest Florida since 1970 and had a residence here since 1986.

"He had a good number of friends down here."