Active for Life: Walshes Work, Play with Relish

Ginny and Larry Walsh believe in working hard and playing well.

As—arguably—Northfield’s busiest couple, they devote full-time hours to the and the , yet still have time to take part in a full range of recreational activities, trot the globe and pay quarterly visits to the grandkids.      

Both Ginny, 61, and Larry, 63, are known to hundreds of Northfielders as that kindly couple that takes the angst out of preparing their tax returns. For several years, the Walsh’s have spent February through April as volunteer tax preparers in the AARP-sponsored program the NSC offers to the community free of charge.

The Walshes are retired, but they give a whole new definition to the word.

“We made a plan,” Larry says. “The plan was to work for 35 years, then volunteer 35 to 40 hours per week for seven years—then hope for grandchildren.”

The couple, who met when they both worked for IBM in Minneapolis, fell in love with each other and with Northfield, where they raised one of their sons after they married 17 years ago. Though their careers and educational plans took them elsewhere, they determined to return and spend the rest of their lives here.

“Northfield is an active, engaged, involved community—that’s what we like,” says Ginny.

If that’s so, then the Walshes help set the pace.

“Larry has been instrumental in developing and programming the computer software that we use to collect all the data for the Senior Center,” said Director Lynne Pederson. “He goes about doing his work without any fanfare or attention, and he has save us thousands of dollars by not needing to hire staff or a vendor for IT services.”

IBM encourages its retirees to remain active in their communities by providing credit for their volunteer hours to nonprofit organizations in cash or equipment.

“We’ve been the beneficiaries of the Walshes' skill sets, passions and love of people to guide their contributions of time and treasure,” says Jim Blaha, director of the CAC. “Larry does almost all of our technology upgrades and maintenance. Both he and Ginny worked for IBM, which sponsored the acquisition of computer hardware thanks to their volunteer credits."

Through his position on the board of Habitat for Humanity, Larry also recruited and directed the Habitat volunteers who last winter remodeled of the CAC’s Clothes Closet and Food Shelf—where he and Ginny help out three or four hours per week. In addition to his Habitat board duties, Larry spends 400 hours each summer with a hammer, nails and a saw, building houses.

“Ginny is one of a couple of people that we ask to fill in when a staff member is absent,” says Judy Bickel, who supervises the Food Shelf.  “There isn’t a job in the Food Shelf that Ginny hasn’t done, and she keeps everyone on their toes when she is there. “

Larry and Ginny also volunteer to cook and serve meals at Thursday’s Table, a weekly community dinner held at the NSC. 

“Ginny even recruits and schedules volunteers from her book club to work once a month,” adds Bickel.

A year-round commitment

Yearly, the Walshes turn their efforts to the CAC’s Christmas Sharing program, which provides Christmas gifts for needy Northfield children and their families; Ginny serves on the program’s executive committee.

The party at which the gifts—including handmade pajamas, books, stocking-stuffers and a quilt—are distributed is a huge event, taking up two huge halls in the NSC. More than 50 different community groups and hundreds of volunteers are involved, including students from local schools and and colleges. 

It’s true community collaboration, coordinated by Larry. 

“The whole thing takes three days to setup and break down, but it’s great to see all those families with their Christmases all set,” he says.

The Walshes are also active in their churc, and in interest groups like book clubs and the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium. 

“We’ve both taken many, many classes, and Larry even taught one about telecommunications,” Ginny says.

Larry, who holds two Master’s degrees in math and computer science, and was once an adjunct professor at St. Mary’s College in Winona, still has one ambition unfilled in Northfield: “I’d really like to tutor math.”

Just hearing about such a schedule might be exhausting to some, but the Walshes are glad their activities put them in such close proximity to the NSC’s fitness center and pool, which they use both to keep fit and to relax.                                                                                                                                                                                            Both inveterate cyclists, they belong the Northfield Pedalers bicycle club, and recently accompanied the club on a three-day scenic tour of the Root River bike trail near Rochester. Around town, the bikes, Larry says, are “a good replacement for the car."

The couple has also taken time to travel the world. 

Through a lifelong-learning program sponsored by St. Olaf College,  they have travelled to the Far East—Japan, China, Tibet and Thailand—and Europe several times each. They have toured Turkey, Israel and Jordan. They have kayaked—while visiting family—in Alaska, hiked and biked through the Copper Canyon of Mexico, and scaled the heights of Machu Picchu in Peru, and are scheduled—in January 2013—to explore Antarctica.

Why?

“Because everyone I’ve ever spoken with says it’s the most memorable place they’ve ever been,” Ginny says simply.

The couple’s one regret is that their grandchildren live so far away.

Three of their sons—Scott, 42, Jim, 36, and Thomas, 34— live in Minnesota. But Brian, 38, the father of their three grandchildren, lives in New York.

Notwithstanding, visits are a planned priority. 

“We see them regularly, every three months,” Larry says.

To the Walshes, planning and prioritizing are important to living a meaningful life, and they aren’t about to stop now. 

”I’ve seen too many a cohort turn bitter and unhappy in retirement, dumped in a chair in front of the TV," Larry said. "Retirement is what you make of it.”

Editor's note: Active for Life is a regular Northfield Patch feature telling the stories of Northfielders who are active, engaged, connected and just happen to be considered seniors. Know someone who should be featured? E-mail editor Corey Butler Jr. at corey.butler@patch.com