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Using his education, O’Malley briefly started a drilling company with partner Thomas F. Riley, but soon thereafter he decided to launch his own surveying company, Walter F. O’Malley Engineering Co., while at the same time serving as a junior engineer for the city of New York Board of Transportation (“That paid $3019 a year,” O’Malley once recalled. “I always remember the odd numbers.”).18 His third income was as city surveyor. His own company was responsible for geological surveys and foundation test borings for New York’s Midtown Tunnel.
After earning his law degree at Fordham on October 15, 1930, he began his career at the Lincoln Building located at 60 E. 42nd Street in New York City. O’Malley founded, published and was editor of “Sub-Contractors Register,” an important directory listing personnel and services for contractors, despite the fact that he listed his Uncle Joe O’Malley’s name as President in the published book. He quickly became President of the Society of Allied Building Trades, working on correcting troubles of labor. O’Malley also wrote an impressive and popular law guide to explain the New York City Building Code, initially selling 10,000 copies.19
His career off to a multifaceted start, O’Malley added a key partner to his law practice in Ray Wilson, who had significant associations with insurance and indemnity corporations.
It was in 1931 that O’Malley decided to tie the knot with his longtime sweetheart, Kay Hanson, literally marrying the girl next door. The charming Kay had overcome great adversity in her life. While Kay and Walter fell in love in their 20s, she had developed cancer of the larynx. Unfortunately, at the time, throat operations were very rare and doctors were experimenting to try and fix the problem. Although Kay had a “successful” operation in 1927, her voice box was permanently impaired, leaving her to speak with no more sound than a barely audible whisper for the remainder of her life. Those around her learned how to read her lips to communicate. That she would not be able to speak at a normal level did not matter to O’Malley. “She’s the same girl I fell in love with,” he told his father.20
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An expert in building codes, Walter O’Malley became President of the Society of Allied Building Trades. |
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Walter O’Malley founded, edited and published “Subcontractors Register.” The 1937 edition is shown. |
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Walter and Kay O’Malley with Kay’s parents, Peter and Elizabeth Hanson. |
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