When asked to describe her father, Melissa Walker simply said, “He was kind of like Forrest Gump, in that he just kind of landed in places that took him down a path, and he went with it.”

William “Bill” Walker, of Marietta, held a number of jobs during his 80 years: an Air Force airman, a counselor for people battling drug addiction, general manager at a couple of cemeteries, and a labor negotiator for the Teamsters, just to name a few. But, whatever he did, he was in 100 percent, friends and family said.

“He put his whole body into everything he did,” said Joan H. Sawyer, co-owner of the Lincoln Family Group, which owns a handful of cemeteries in metro Atlanta. “You could tell he always enjoyed what he was doing.”

Mr. Walker died Sept. 27, from complications of a respiratory infection. A funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home and Crematory, Marietta, which is also in charge of arrangements. Burial will follow at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton.

Born in McCaysville, in northeast Georgia, just below the Tennessee state line, Mr. Walker fought a drug and alcohol addiction after his Air Force years. He sought treatment and spent the rest of his life trying to help others. In the ’70s, he worked with one of the first juvenile out-patient treatment centers, New Freedom Lodge, and helped establish Turn Around, a 12-step based, residential drug and alcohol treatment facility for adults, said Ms. Walker, a daughter from a previous marriage.

“Even after he left Turn Around, he would come back to be a mentor, or just to listen if somebody needed to talk,” Ms. Walker said. “People in recovery would tell you that dad cared about people and what happened to people.”

During a transition period in his life, Mr. Walker took an interest in the funeral and cemetery business. He met Jack Frost II and talked himself into a job as the general manager at two of the cemeteries Mr. Frost co-owned with his mother.

“He served in a number of positions for us,” Mr. Frost said. “Included in all of that, he was our historical guide. He wanted to know more about the families that were buried there, so he read everything we had in our archives.”

With that knowledge, he gave families searching for buried loved ones far more information than they imagined they could get, Mrs. Sawyer said.

“And if there was something he didn’t know, he’d find out and then let you know,” she said. “That was just the kind of man he was.”

Mr. Walker is survived by his wife of 20 years, Anne T. Walker; three additional daughters from his previous marriage, Tanya Walker of Athens, Tenn., JoLynn Sharpton of Cleveland, Tenn., and Vickie Jenkins of Duluth; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.