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AS HE TURNS 80, HIS GYM BAG'S STILL PACKEDDICK CASE_POST STANDARD COLUMNISTI’m nominating Walt Price as a community asset.He’s “Mr. Fitness” in Syracuse.Walt turns 80 Monday.No big deal, except for family and friends. At an age when most of us might be playing golf or babysitting grandkids, Walt will be running a senior fitness class at the YMCA — his long-time employer — playing volleyball, arranging yet-another Folksmarch, taking a brisk walk in his Strathmore neighborhood or playing the piano — his hobby of many years.We credit Walt with starting Folksmarches in our town. He’s also one of the people who helped create the Mountain Goat Run.All with the help of Peg Price, the woman Walt married the same day he graduatec from Springfield College, bad in 1954. “Peggy’s been my real partner in all of this,” Walt says.The Prices had eight children. (A son died in an auto crash in 2003.) And 15 grandchildren.Walt was born into an undertaker’s family. Both his father, Elmer, and his mother, were licensed practitioners. The Price funeral home was at 143 W. Castle St. (now Garland Funeral Home). His grandfather, his mother’s father, was Fred Dutcher, a Post Standard writer for many years. Fred’s specialty was local history.Walt had a piece of the city’s history, too, back then. At the age of 10, he participated in the dedication of Comfort Tyler Park in the Uni versity Hill neighborhood. His mother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.He graduated from Central High School and flirted briefly with a career in journalism as . student at Syracuse University He later transferred to Springfield College, in Massachusetts. There, he met his future wife.In 1955, Walt began his career of 36 years with the YMCA.“Fitness was always an interest,” he says.He served at Ys in Springfield and Worcester, Mass., Newark, N.J., Norwich and359 MONTHS, PAGE B-
Newspaper Details
Syracuse Post Standard
Syracuse, New York, US
Sun, Apr 17, 2011
Page 153
Full Page
Clipped by
Sarah K.
NA, 06 Feb 2024
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