After retirement, Talley lived in New York City, Oklahoma, and Alaska. He worked for Raymond International and supervised the construction of 11 buildings in Brasília as the Brazilian capital was under construction. He was resident manager of the Metcalf and Eddy group, and oversaw the group as it rebuilt Anchorage, Alaska, after the 1964 Alaska earthquake and worked in Da Nang during the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, he was on a committee advising on the documentary "Alaska at War", which premiered in 1986. Talley died on November 27, 1998 in Homer, Alaska, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. As of 2021, there is a scholarship at the University of Alaska named after Talley and his wife, Virginia.