Walter Dyer of Danvers, Craftsman, 'Liberace Of Leathers', 84
DGH
Walter Dyer of Danvers, an eccentric leather craftsman who had more
difficulty giving his money away than he did earning it, died Tuesday,
January 14, 2003, at Salem [Massachusetts] Hospital, at the age of 84.
Mr. Dyer drew national attention on Dec. 19, 1980, when he decided to
shower the residents of Lynn, Massachusetts, with 1,500 $1 bills. The
money was to be dropped from a low-flying airplane. Nearly 4,000
people, including Mr. Dyer, assembled in Central Square for the big
event with fish nets and garbage bags to reel in the loot. But the
pilot of the plane miscalculated and the money fluttered out to sea.
Mr. Dyer slunk back to his workshop with chants of "Walter Dyer,
Walter liar. Walter Dyer, Walter liar" ringing in his ears.
But he didn't let it get him down. "I'm glad I did it anyway," the
flamboyant craftsman said at the time. "I'd do it again and I hope
most of the money finds its way into the hands of nice people who
could use it."
He said the purpose of the stunt was to "thank people because I
started in Lynn with $5 from welfare 25 years ago and I've sold $10
million worth of leather goods. Everyone in Lynn knows and is friendly
to me because I'm a character."
What the hecklers did not know was that Mr. Dyer's Lynn leather
workshop, which employed about 40 people at the time, was in financial
trouble.
"He was an artist and a craftsman. He wasn't really a businessman and
he never got a handle on how much it cost to make his goods," his
daughter Marie of Marlborough said yesterday. "He was really behind
the eight ball at the time. The business was going straight downhill,
so he said, 'If I'm going to go out of business, I'm going to show my
appreciation to the people of Lynn.'"
Mr. Dyer retired the following year after his workshop was destroyed
in the Great Lynn Fire of 1981. In his heyday, during the 1970s,
wearing cowhide was considered a political statement against
synthetics.
Mr. Dyer had retail outlets in Rockport, Harvard Square, and Charles
Street in Boston. His son Bruce, of Ashland, operates a Walter Dyer is
Leather Shop in Framingham.
Mr. Dyer was born in Bangor, where he learned to do leather work at
the knee of his father, who stitched shoes.
As a young man, he moved to Lynn, where he worked in the shoe
business. After serving in the Army during World War II, he returned
to Lynn and opened his own shop, where he made shoes and moccasins
before expanding into a wide range of leather clothing. To attract
attention to his handmade moccasins, he wore an Indian headdress while
working in the window of his shop.
"He was the Liberace of leathers," said Marie's husband, Jeff Bautze.
"He was his own best salesman. He'd wear outrageous outfits,
mismatched moccasins to demonstrate his various designs, a leather
shirt, pants, and cowboy hat."
An acquaintance told him that his craftsmanship and skill at
self-promotion were wasted in the mill city, so, keeping his workshop
in Lynn, he moved his retail outlet to the tourist town of Rockport,
where he caught his stride.
Taffy-chomping tourists strolling down Bearskin Neck during the dog
days of August always asked him whether he was hot.
"Not at all," he said. "The leather insulates me." Then he'd sell them
the shirt off his back.
"He had an unconventional way of doing business. He was more
interested in turning people on to something new than he was in making
money," his daughter said.
In the days before credit cards were in wide use, he'd often send a
customer off with a coat without the customer paying for it.
"You look great in it," he said. "It'll change your life. You send me
the money when you get home."
They usually did.
"He would've been a multimillionaire if properly managed," said his
son-in-law. "But he epitomized the hippie generation. Hippies were
looking for everything natural and Walter had shoes that felt like you
were wearing another layer of skin."
At 6 feet tall and about 250 pounds with his outrageous costumes and
his pink Cadillac, Mr. Dyer was a man who commanded attention when he
made the rounds to his shops, schmoozing with the customers and
sharing what came to be known in his family as "Walter Dyer logic."
A customer admires a pair of shoes that is in natural brown and would
prefer green?
"Then wear sunglasses and they'll look green," he said.
Worried about wearing his handmade leather jacket in the rain?
"How many cows have you seen using umbrellas?" asked Mr. Dyer.
Then he'd put his pet cocker spaniel Pepper through its routine of
doggie parlor tricks.
"He was an unforgettable character," said his daughter.
A recovering alcoholic, Mr. Dyer stopped drinking in 1950 and became a
member of Alcoholics Anonymous. He sponsored new members and often
spoke at meetings.
"He changed lives," said Bautze. "He was probably known by as many
people for his work with AA as he was for his work with leather."
