Walter Lee Shepeard was born in 1906 in Neck City, Missouri. He obtained his medical degree from the Arkansas School of Medicine in 1935. Afterwards he attended the School of Public Health at Harvard University. Shepeard joined the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia in 1948 as a professor of clinical pathology. He served as the program director for the training of medical technologists. Under his leadership, this program developed into a baccalaureate degree. He remained the director of the medical technology program until his retirement in 1971. Shepeard also taught a history of medicine course at MCG for 20 years.

Shepeard also developed one of the first blood banking programs in the southeast and received national recognition. The CSRA Blood Assurance Program evolved into the Shepeard Community Blood Center and was named in Dr. Shepeard’s honor. The Walter L. Shepeard Building on the Augusta University Health Sciences Campus was also named in his honor. Shepeard died on March 16, 1978.