Tom Walsh

 

Back in Thermopolis, many decades ago, a young Tom Walsh would cross paths

at school with a younger kid named Dave Freudenthal.

 

The swaggering if smaller Walsh often harassed fifth grader Freudenthal, who

sometimes would tearfully go home and complain that this older kid picked on him or

stuffed him in a locker.

 

Some 45 years later, Walsh learned the meaning of payback as the new representative

of House District 56 in Casper.

 

He often had to descend the wide stairs from the House chamber to the first floor of

the Capitol to humbly meet with Freudenthal over legislative issues, the governor said

Saturday. "It delighted me to go to him and say, 'Tom, what bills do you want me to

sign?"'

 

Besides the ironic payback angle, the anecdote illustrates the adage that everything in

Wyoming is political except politics, which is personal.

 

"He was an incredibly civil human being," Freudenthal said. "That doesn't mean he

wasn't passionate. "

 

Walsh's life of politics, civility, passion, and civil and military service ended Friday

when he died from complications from leukemia.

 

At 2 p.m. Monday, he will be honored at a service at the Oregon Trail State Veterans

Cemetery in the expanded chapel he doggedly supported during his tenure in the

Legislature.

 

"The veterans cemetery was a big thing for him," Freudenthal said. "I'm not sure the

money would have been there [for the chapel expansion] without him pushing for it. "

 

While Walsh could push, he never came across as pushy.

 

"Everybody liked him," Freudenthal said. "People could underestimate him because

he was so gregarious."

 

His experience in the Legislature started in 2002 with his election to represent central

Casper, and two re-elections before resigning for leukemia-related reasons in

February 2008.

 

That didn't keep him down for long, and five months later the Casper City Council

named him to fill the rest of a term of a council member who had stepped down.

 

And the Legislature and Casper City Council came after a long career in the military,

education, and previous service on the council.

That's not counting a crush of civic work including the Casper Chamber of Commerce

Rotary Club, Salvation Army, Casper Troopers Foundation, Natrona County United

Veterans Council, U.S. Parachute Association, Army Reserves Officers Association,

Cowboy Joe Club, University of Wyoming Alumni, and the Casper Area Economic

Development Alliance.

 

His 37-year military career included service on the ground and in the air as a

marksmanship instructor, engineer, and skydiver. He achieved 2,054 parachute

jumps, and held two world records earned in the Indonesia International Military &

Civilian Skydiving Championships in 1989, according to his obituary from Bustard's

Funeral Home.

 

For years, Walsh researched and wrote about American soldiers who may have been

prisoners of war and missing in action after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 for the

United States. He also made trips to Southeast Asia to investigate reports of POWs

and MIAs.

 

In a 1993 column printed in the Casper Star-Tribune, he wrote: "I am not trying to

bring dead people back to life. And, I am not trying to beat a dead horse to death.

What I am trying to do is just bring out one live American kid that we left over there

when we lost that war and ran out on them. It's called walking the walk for your fellow

man.'

 

Saturday, Chris Walsh said his father's sense of duty guided his own decisions to join

the Casper Police Department and serve a tour in Iraq.

 

While many people sent Chris e-mails, his father made a point of sending real paper

letters, sometimes with cookies which garnered quizzical looks from his fellow

soldiers. He said. "You couldn't go to war with a better support system."

 

While the grief is hard, Chris has been hearing new stories about his father, he said.

 

"It's kind of humbling, " he said. "It seemed there were so many places where he had

an impact that I didn't know."

 

Both he and his brother Tom, an executive with Thomson Reuters, benefited from the

lessons they learned from their father, he said.

 

"He gave us a sense of excellence, and 'finish everything you start, "' Chris said.

 

Breakout:

 

--1963, married high school sweetheart Rita Marie Christensen in 1963; two children,

Tom and Chris; four grandchildren.

 

--Educator in Natrona County including principal of Dean Morgan Junior High,

principal of Pineview Elementary School, assistant superintendent of curriculum for

the Natrona County School District.

--1996, elected to Casper City Council.

 

--1997, resigned from city council and Pineview to write about and search for

American prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action in Vietnam.

 

--1998, elected to Casper City Council; mayor in 2000.

 

--2002, elected to first of three consecutive terms in Legislature; resigned for health

reasons in February 2008.

 

--2008, named to five-month term on Casper City Council.

 

-- 2010, died at his home on Jan. 1.