High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Walker family came to prominence via its progenitor, (Thomas Barlow) TB Walker. T.B. Walker was a highly successful American businessperson who acquired timber in Minnesota and California and built one of the largest forest products corporations in the nation at the time. He collected art that he made available to the public, and founded the Minneapolis Public Library. He is also the founder and namesake of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Descendants of his son, Clinton Walker, continue to live in Northern California and own 142,500 acres of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified sustainable timberland known as Shasta Forests.