Walter H. Close, Jr. elected FMTC President (1963-1964)

Fox Meadow was Walter and Betty Close’s first love. All of their best friends were there and it was the nucleus of their social life. They played tennis and paddle tennis and planned, executed and attended all of the parties.

No one cared more about the grounds and the plantings than Walter. He was house and grounds chairman when it was decided that a retaining wall between the porch and the tennis courts was needed and he became the chief designer, foreman and construction worker.

Starting in 1959-60 Close and his crew of volunteers began to plant trees, dozens and dozens of them. And, when there were droughts he saved rainwater from the gutters of his home and somehow transported it to Fox Meadow to water his precious seedlings. Close claimed that over the years the Club had planted more that 256 trees to screen the paddle courts and to prevent the lights from bothering neighbors at night.

By now the grounds around the clubhouse bore little resemblance to those 40-50 years ago. The transformation was the result of the long-range plan begun in the late 1940s.

Walter Close (1914-1991) also served as APTA President from 1959-1961 and was inducted into the APTA Hall of Fame in 1967

Source: Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club- The First Hundred Years, 1983, personal communication from his daughter Cynthia Close Larkin