Boston Celtics Honor Memory Of Marblehead's Heather Walker

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Boston Celtics have named the media center at their Brighton practice facility in memory of Marblehead resident Heather Walker, the longtime Vice President of Media Relations who worked for the team in media and community relations for 15 years stepping down as she battled stage 4 Glioblastoma in 2021.

Walker died in April at 52 years old, two years after being diagnosed and after raising more than $600,000 for vaccine research for the rare form of brain cancer. She was honored as a "Celtics Hero Among Us" for her efforts on March 13, 2022 — the same day Kevin Garnett's No. 5 was retired and raised to the rafters.

"Heather Walker meant everything," Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown said upon the team announcement on Monday. "She was the person I worked with a lot early on in my career with media stuff and everything I was doing off the court, in the community, or outside of the basketball.

"Now that she's no longer with us is extremely sad. But for her to get the media center here in the building named after her, it's a great way for her and her legacy and her family to be able to be proud about something."

Walker's battle against brain cancer inspired the Move4Heather campaign and the 2022 Walk
on Preston Beach to support those with cancer and front-line workers amid the COVID-19 crisis.

In May 2022, she organized a 2-mile walk on Preston Beach that drew more than 150 people to honor first responders and teachers in the town who helped students through the pandemic closures and hybrid learning difficulties.

"It absolutely means so much to me," Walker told Patch in 2022. "So many negative things have happened over the past couple of years. I thought this is one positive thing that could bring people together.

"Marblehead has been so supportive of me. Walking along the beach in town was one simple thing we could all do. I get goosebumps just thinking about it."

The walk was an extension of the type of community recognition events she spearheaded during her 15 years working with Celtics players on their outreach and giving back to the neighborhoods and area cities and towns.

"She was just there with me every step of the way," Brown said. "All the schools that I visited. All the community centers. The work that I was doing early in my career off the court.

"Heather was there for pretty much everything."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)