Beloved Monte Employee Remembered as Humanitarian

Beloved Monte Employee Remembered as Humanitarian

By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 29- Friends and co-workers from a popular program implemented by Montefiore Hospital were saddened to learn of the untimely death of Michael Joseph Walsh, who died of lung failure at the age of 51.

Walsh was found dead inside his Mosholu Parkway North apartment where he had lived for the last 18-years, discovered by police officers on Tuesday, May 26. His death over the Memorial Day weekend came just days before his 52nd birthday.

Walsh, who grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, was a gifted pool player who gave local pool sharks a run for their money.

However, childhood arthritis prevented him from joining the professional circuit, but Walsh would spend years working for the owner of the local pool hall where he developed his skill, spending countless hours assisting players in perfecting their game.

Longtime friend Ileene Mark recalled meeting Walsh when he began to drive a taxi at Gateway Car Service, "I remember the day I met Michael, He was walking in. I worked nights and he worked days. He came in with this New York Met's bag and we were friend's ever since."

Soon after Walsh began helping recovering alcoholics and drug abusers at The Bowery Mission before coming to Street Smart, a program previously known as The Woman's Center, which got it's start at Montefiore Hospital, with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control, where he was the coordinator of the HIV prevention program for adolescence.

According to his boss at Street Smart, Anitra Pivnick, for the last decade Walsh would go into local schools and places like the South Bronx Jobs Corps where he instructed teens about the prevention of HIV.

Pivnick said of Walsh, "He was just an extremely kind man and he had an extraordinary gift to communicate with young people and that's no easy thing to do."

"They saw him as a mentor," Pivnick added, "He was wonderful with kids." 

Friends say Walsh was a very private person who loved baseball, music and was an avid coin collector. Walsh shared his love for animals with his two brother's Tommy and Eddie and shared his love for them when he opened his home to them briefly in 2010.

Walsh kept it hidden from many of his co-worker's and clients, but was devastated by the death of his youngest brother Eddie, who died from the effects of diabetes on March 31, 2012.

Co-worker Paulette Gordon who affectionately called Walsh "Fabio" for his long-wavy hair, recalled, "He was a dedicated worker who loved his job and the people that he worked with. He was really a good guy."

Another co

-worker Mike Henderson said of Walsh, "We did outreach together. Mike was the kind of guy who was more than willing to share information through his wisdom."

 

Henderson added, "He was very dedicated to his work and did his best at what he did. Mike did presentations to teens at schools and had a group of adolescents who admired and loved him."

During a June18 memorial for co-worker's at the Church of St. Brendan's, Father George Stewart said of Walsh, "He had a great love for youth, a great love for the poor. He had a great love for the underdog."

Recalling the 24-hour opening of the lower church that houses the Holy Eucharist, which began on December 8, 2013, Stewart said over 400 volunteers have given one-hour a week for the last year and-a-half to sit vigil at the open church and pray.

Stewart revealed, 

"The very first hour when we began, was manned by Michael. Michael was our very first to do it."

Walsh is survived by bothers Thomas and half-brother Allen.