Myrl Vincent Walker was born in Alden, Kansas, on May 20, 1903. He attended college at Southwestern College in Winnifred, Kansas, from 1921 to 1924 and graduated from the Kansas State Teachers College of Hays in 1927 with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Science. He taught for several years and then attended the University of Kansas from 1930 to 1931, where he earned a Master of Arts in Vertebrate Paleontology in 1931.

Walker was a close associate of paleontologist George F. Sternberg, who developed the natural history museum collections at the Kansas State Teachers College of Hays (now the Fort Hays State University Sternberg Museum of Natural History). Starting in 1927, Walker and Sternberg worked together for five consecutive summers digging for fossils in Wyoming.

In 1933, Walker became a Federal Civil Service Ranger and Park Naturalist for the U.S. National Park Service. Between 1933 and 1944, he was appointed to Petrified Forest National Monument, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, Crater Lake National Park, Glacier National Park, and Yosemite National Park. He returned to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks from 1947 to 1955.

While employed for the National Park Service, Walker wrote a series of articles, including: "The Petrified Forest of Arizona" (1935) "Evidence of Triassic insects in Petrified Forest National Monument" (1938) "Black Widow Spiders", "A Forest turned to Stone", "I have seen Crater Lake", "These Little Pigs have a Way" (1941) "Reptiles and Amphibians of Yosemite National Park" (1946) "National Parks and Monuments of Utah" (1947, revised 1953) "National Parks in Nature Education" (1951).

In 1955, Walker returned to Fort Hays Kansas State College as a professor in the Geology Department. In 1970, he was appointed Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences. He also served as the Director of the Sternberg Memorial Museum from 1955 until his retirement on July 1, 1973.

Walker was involved in numerous professional and scholarly societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the Soil Conservation Society of America, the Kansas Association of Science, the American Association of Museums, the Kansas State Teachers Association, Sigma Epsilon, Phi Kappa Phi, and Delta Epsilon, among others. He served on the organization committee for the Kansas Museums Association and one term as president of the Kansas Anthropological Association.

Myrl V. Walker died on May 23, 1985, at age 82. In 1988, a series of paleontology papers were published as "Articles in Honor of Myrl V. Walker" in Fort Hays Studies, 3d ser. v. 10 (Science series). The university awards the Myrl V. Walker in his honor to students majoring in Geology.