Luke F. Walton
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Walton paternal line

Mark Francis Walton (1953–)

Mark Francis Walton is Luke F. Walton’s father, and the son of Frank J. Walton and Helen Barbara Walton. He reported and hosted television in California and in Jacksonville, then worked as a financial adviser in La Jolla, and he is retired. He co-hosts The Good News Journey . This page is built from the documents that can be read. Where they disagree, it says so. An unpublished memoir he wrote for his family is among them. The family record gives his birth year as 1953. No birth certificate has been read.

Frank and Helen’s son

Helen’s obituary names their son Mark and their grandson Luke. On his own account , his parents met in a Catholic church in Coronado during the Second World War, and his mother, a Navy nurse, served in England during the Normandy invasion. He says the family was three boys and two girls, and that he spent a year at St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara at 14. The 1971 appointment release says five children and does not name them. His father’s obituary in the San Diego Union, on 12 February 1991, names his brother Joshua Walton , then of Washington, D.C., and his sister Maribeth Walton, then of Encino. Helen’s 2012 obituary in the U-T places Mark in Carlsbad and Maribeth McGinley in Glendale.

He says his father was a sergeant in the Marine Corps. The Veterans Legacy Memorial and the marker at Fort Rosecrans give the rank as corporal. He says his father later became a priest, a deacon. The diocese lists a deacon, ordained 28 May 1983 , and not a priest. In an unpublished memoir he calls his father a deacon. On the podcast site he remembers the line, “It’s all a gift.” On his LinkedIn he remembers another: “it’s one thing to have a successful career, but it’s much more important to have an impact.”

Los Angeles, Arcadia, San Jose State

The University of San Diego’s student paper, on 13 September 1984 , profiled him for a lecture. It says he was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Arcadia, that he was an all-star pitcher in high school until an arm injury, and that he went to San Jose State University to study radio and television journalism. He worked through school as a disc jockey at KEZR-FM. The profile places him in La Jolla. The university’s release the same week says he holds a B.A. in journalism, radio, and TV from San Jose State, and that he had worked in electronic media since 1974. His LinkedIn gives the degree as September 1971 to May 1975, cum laude, in journalism and political science, and lists tennis. The student paper says he graduated and took a job in 1976. He writes that he was 22 on a Saturday in June 1975, when he received a B.A. in radio and television journalism and stayed on the air at KEZR instead of the ceremony.

Chico, Redding, Santa Barbara

The same profile gives the jobs before San Diego. In 1976 he was at KPAY AM-FM in Chico. He created the station’s first sports department, anchored the afternoon newscasts, and did a weekend disc-jockey shift. In 1977 he moved to KRCR-TV in Redding as a bureau chief, covering three counties, for nine months. He then went to KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara as a news anchor and reporter for six months, and created that station’s first sports department.

PM Magazine, 1979–1984

He joined KFMB-TV in San Diego in July 1979 as host and producer of PM Magazine. The university release says he produced the series from July 1979 to July 1984. His LinkedIn gives the same months, five years and one month, and the title host and segment producer. The Los Angeles Times , on 25 September 1985, says Terry Wilson replaced him in June 1984. CBS 8 says an August 1983 story is the premiere of News 8’s PM Magazine, co-hosted by Janet Zappala and Mark Walton, one of 46 stations then carrying the program. The premiere in that story featured Barbara Mandrell , once Miss Oceanside. The station’s clip is titled as the 1979 premiere . The Times also says Jeannie Miller had been the Channel 8 co-host for five years when she and Wilson left the show in September 1985.

The Evening Tribune, on 11 July 1979 , says the news-magazine will begin 6 August on Channel 8, weeknights at 7:30, and names the hosts as Mark Walton and Karin Kelly. Jim Loy is the producer. The Tribune’s listing for 6 August calls that night the debut, and names the hosts as Mark Walton and Janet Zappala, with Barbara Mandrell as the guest. On 9 August the Union says he came down from Santa Barbara, and that Janet Zappala had arrived at Channel 8 the previous March as a reporter from Honolulu. It says Jim Loy’s local segments went out through a cooperative of 46 stations, assembled by Westinghouse Broadcasting in San Francisco. On 12 October 1989 , at the show’s tenth year, Joe Stein names those two as the first hosts, and says Walton was then a news anchor in Florida.

On 7 March 1984 the Tribune still has him on Channel 8’s PM Magazine, and calls him KIFM’s new weekend host. The San Diego Union’s column of 24 June 1984 says Channel 8 told him that Friday he was out. The station called the parting a mutual agreement. He said the timing was not. After five years on the show, the column says, he had answered an advertisement in Broadcasting magazine for a magazine-show co-host, and the advertisement was for his own job. On 25 July 1984 the paper reported that KIFM had put Larry Himmel and Mark Walton on the air three hours a night, replacing Art Good. It names Bruce Walton as that station’s general manager. On 15 August the Tribune calls him late of PM Magazine and names him, with Larry Himmel, as a host of “Lites Out San Diego.”

On 18 September 1984 he lectured at the university , “The Changing Broadcast Medium,” in Salomon Lecture Hall. The student paper says the PM Magazine work had taken him from Hawaii to the Caribbean, and names ultralights and hot-air balloons in San Diego and tennis with Vic Braden .

Travel News Network

His LinkedIn lists the next post as correspondent for Travel News Network, August 1984 to February 1985, in Sacramento. He describes it as writing, producing, and reporting travel segments on 35 stations in the United States and on Good Morning, Australia. His memoir names the same work in 1984, including the south of France, and calls it the News Travel Network.

Eye on San Diego

His LinkedIn gives February 1985 to March 1988 at KGTV , host and producer of Eye on San Diego, and calls it an award-winning magazine program. The Paley Center catalogs the 27 September 1986 broadcast and credits him as producer and reporter. Bill Griffith is the host of that episode.

He writes that in 1985 he hosted and produced a documentary there, “Is San Diego Becoming Another L.A.?”, on Proposition A, and that it was nominated for best documentary and did not win. The Union of 2 November 1985 lists “Is San Diego Becoming Another Los Angeles?” for Sunday at 6 p.m. on Channel 10, and says he hosts it. The listing does not mention a nomination. The Union-Tribune of 30 July 2001 calls that documentary Emmy-nominated.

A Tribune listing for 29 June 1985 says that on Eye on San Diego he visits the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna. The listing for 17 May 1986 says he reports on a building moratorium to slow traffic, and names Bill Griffith as the host. A Union listing for 15 November 1987 names him with Bill Griffith on the program. The listing for 31 January 1988 , “Who Owns San Diego?”, names them again.

Jacksonville, then NBC 7

His LinkedIn gives May 1988 to June 1991 at WTLV in Jacksonville, anchorman and reporter. The family record gives Luke’s birth year as 1991. Luke says he was born in Jacksonville while Mark was there, and that the family returned to San Diego shortly after. In an unpublished memoir he writes that Luke was born on 25 January 1991, while he was anchoring the 5 p.m. news at WTLV, Channel 12, that he returned to San Diego three years after he went to Jacksonville, and that at NBC 7/39 he anchored the morning newscast. The San Diego Union, on 18 December 1988 , calls him a former host of PM Magazine and producer of Eye on San Diego, and a news anchorman for the NBC affiliate in Jacksonville. His father’s obituary, on 12 February 1991 , places him in Jacksonville. The profile’s next television date is NBC 7 in San Diego, September 1992 to January 1999. Nothing on the profile fills June 1991 to September 1992.

Tom Blair’s column of 24 April 1988 says he leaves San Diego that week for Jacksonville and will start 7 May as a TV news anchorman. It calls him the former PM Magazine co-anchor and Eye on San Diego producer. It does not name the station. The Union-Tribune’s column of 2 September 1990 still has him anchoring the news in Jacksonville, and longing to return to San Diego before February. On 2 September 1992 the paper says he and Geni Cavitt will host local cut-ins on the MDA telethon, and identifies him as formerly of PM Magazine. On 6 October 1992 Blair says he is back after three and a half years, a new reporter at Channel 39. His profile dates NBC 7 from September 1992 to January 1999. The October column says reporter. On 4 May 1993 Blair calls him Channel 39’s Mark Walton. A letter he signed in the Union-Tribune of 11 June 2000 says his contract was not renewed the year before, after almost 20 years in San Diego television, and that he had been the morning anchor on NBC 7/39.

On 16 November 1990 the Union-Tribune calls him a former Channel 8 PM Magazine host and a reporter in Jacksonville, and a San Diego commuter. He is co-host of a new ESPN series, Lifestyle Magazine, a health and sports show being taped in San Diego, to debut nationally the next month. On 6 December the Evening Tribune says he is doing a San Diego segment for that series, and visiting his family. The 2 September column had called him an anchor. The November column calls him a reporter.

He says that in those years he covered a stolen tank on a San Diego freeway, stood on the floor of the Republican National Convention in 1996, and interviewed Ronald Reagan , Mother Teresa , and Cesar Chavez , and Harrison Ford , Oprah Winfrey , Robin Williams , and Steven Spielberg . He says that in Florida he reported on bounty hunters chasing the head of a drug ring, and that he was almost shot. Those stories are his account.

La Jolla

In 1999, he writes , he left broadcasting and became a financial adviser with Morgan Stanley in La Jolla. The profile dates Morgan Stanley from May 1999 to January 2019, and Wells Fargo Advisors in La Jolla from January 2019 to April 2025, managing director, investments. His summary opens, “After 26 years as a TV journalist and 26 years as a financial advisor, I am now retired.” The profile places him in San Marcos . The SEC adviser report , in the name MARK FRANCIS WALTON, CRD 3245234, shows the Series 65 exam passed on 1 October 1999. The registration record starts later: Morgan Stanley from 24 August 2000, then Wells Fargo Advisors from 18 January 2019 to 29 May 2025. The report’s last update is 29 May 2025, and it says he is not currently registered. It lists no disclosure events. It also lists Morgan Stanley Private Bank, N.A., from January 2015 to January 2019, employer location New York, while the adviser registrations for those years stay in La Jolla.

The Union-Tribune of 30 July 2001 , Alex Roth’s “Where Are They Now?”, calls him a television personality turned stockbroker and the son of Frank Walton, secretary of business and transportation under Ronald Reagan. It gives him as 48, which fits a 1953 birth, and living in south Carlsbad. It says that in two decades of San Diego television he worked at all three major network affiliates: host of KFMB/Channel 8’s PM Magazine in the early 1980s, contributing host and producer of Eye on San Diego at KGTV/Channel 10, and in the 1990s a morning news anchor and reporter at KNSD /Channel 39. The 1979 papers date the Channel 8 debut to 6 August 1979. He describes the Jacksonville anchor job as a three-year commitment and says he was homesick the entire time. The article says he has been a Morgan Stanley financial adviser in La Jolla since shortly after his KNSD contract was not renewed in 1999. The registration record starts 24 August 2000 . It says he fills in for George Chamberlin’s business reports on KNSD, and that he is putting together a pilot, “Taking Stock in San Diego,” with Morgan Stanley’s backing.

The Good News Journey

The Good News Journey is the podcast he co-hosts and produces with Don Mitchell and Jim Robeson. He describes a weekly YouTube show of interviews with people whose faith changed their lives. Their page says it started over lunch as he and Don were retiring, after 26 years in his practice, and that Jim, a pastor of more than twenty years, was invited later. He says the last ten years have been prison ministry.

The Emmys

He writes that he received six Emmy Awards for his work in television. The Good News Journey page adds an Iris Award and an AP Award. His unpublished memoir names the same six, one Iris, and an AP award for best sportscast in a small market, and says Eye on San Diego won a San Diego Emmy for best magazine show within a year of his taking the program over in 1985, and a national Iris two years later. No list read for this page itemizes those six. The Union, on 6 June 1983 , names him in its account of that year’s San Diego Emmy awards as producer of “Diving for a New Life,” on PM Magazine, Channel 8. The Union-Tribune of 30 July 2001 says he won an Emmy in 1980 for a story about former prisoners working as deep-sea divers for oil companies. That is the work the 1983 account names as “Diving for a New Life.” The same 1983 account gives Eye on San Diego to Daniel Arden at Channel 10. Variety, on 7 June 1999 , lists the winners of the 51st Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards. Under Sports Series it names Mark Walton as producer of Inside Cal-Hi Sports, Fox Sports West 2. That show is not among his posts, and his account has him leaving television in 1999. Another public profile , also under the name Mark Walton, describes twenty years at Fox Sports and names Inside Cal-Hi Sports. This page does not count that Emmy as his. He is not Mark S. Walton of CNN .

What is not here yet

A birth certificate. A list that itemizes the six Emmys, the Iris Award, or the AP Award. A newspaper that names WTLV or the 5 p.m. news. His letter of 11 June 2000 calls him the morning anchor on NBC 7/39. The profile of 30 July 2001 names KNSD/Channel 39 and gives him an Emmy in 1980 for the diver story. The column of 24 April 1988 says he starts in Jacksonville on 7 May and does not name the station. The Chico, Redding, and Santa Barbara jobs are the 1984 student paper. The 5 p.m. news at WTLV and the News Travel Network are his LinkedIn and his unpublished memoir. Jacksonville is also Luke’s account. His memoir gives the birth as 25 January 1991.

Sources

Walton paternal line (family record) · Frank J. Walton · About

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