Former WH Executive Chef Found Dead

Walter Scheib Former White House executive chef, Walter Scheib was found dead in a river after being lost for a week.

Last time he was seen he was going hiking alone in the mountains above the Taos Ski Valley. As reported by Fox News, his body was found in a river that was 20 to 30 feet off the hiking trail and 1.7 miles from where his car was found.

Scheib recently moved from Florida to New Mexico and he went for the hike on June 13. When he did not return, his girlfriend reported him missing.

He graduated from New York’s Culinary Institute of America in 1979 and worked at hotels in Florida and West Virginia before then-First Lady Hillary Clinton hired him as the White House’s executive chef in 1994. He continued to work at the White House until 2005 when Laura Bush let him go.

During his time in the White House he was in charge of a full-time staff of five and oversaw a part-time staff of 20.

Just last month he cooked a dinner for a cancer charity fundraiser in Scranton, Pennsylvania. There he told the Times Leader newspaper:

When you’re working at the White House, it’s not a hotel or a restuarant, or a private club. It’s a personal home. Our goal wasn’t just to cook food at the White House, it was to give the First Family an island of normal in a very, very crazy world.