Compared to most figures who founded a lasting movement, Walter left behind remarkably little about his life outside his teaching. What survives comes mostly from the Eschatology Foundation's own archives and a handful of historical records, rather than any biography written at a distance.
Walter married his fiancée Barbara Stenger at twenty-one, and by most accounts she shaped the entire course of his career. When Walter fell seriously ill with tuberculosis in the late 1800s and was told to put his affairs in order, it was reportedly Barbara who urged him to see a Christian Science practitioner — a meeting credited with his recovery and, in time, with turning him toward a lifetime of metaphysical teaching.
The couple had one son, who grew up with significant physical and mental disabilities. He was around fourteen when Walter first became deeply involved with Christian Science — a timeline that suggests the boy's condition was very much on his father's mind as he began that search.
Because Walter's only child lived with significant disabilities, the general understanding within Eschatology's own historical accounts is that he had no grandchildren, and so no direct descendants. Any living blood relatives today would most likely trace back through the wider Walter or Stenger family lines rather than through a direct line of descent.
When Walter broke from Christian Science in 1912, he deliberately avoided founding a church of his own. He taught the "Science of Life" as a home-based educational course rather than a public institution, so there was never a large organization — or a press office — documenting his personal life along the way.
His first book, The Christ Way (1910), was published under a pen name, letting him teach metaphysical ideas without inviting scrutiny from the Christian Science church's leadership.
Eschatology — the Walter Method still operates as a network of small, private study groups rather than a public-facing religious organization. Teaching centers on his own texts, such as The Sickle and The Sharp Sickle, rather than on his biography, which has kept the personal details thin by design rather than by accident.
Family details and the account of his 1912 break from organized religion draw on the Wikipedia article on Eschatology, the Eschatology Foundation's FAQ page, and the Eschatology entry on En Academic, an online reference mirror. Some details, particularly around living relatives, reflect general understanding within the movement's own accounts rather than independently verified genealogical records.