Not afraid to be honest and tell people what he really thought, Walsh was a willing dispenser of experience and knowledge he had accumulated during his lifetime.

Often, these lessons revolved around the values he held dear and embodied in his daily life: working hard, appreciating others, and enjoying the present.

“[Walsh would say], ‘There’s plenty of time to be sitting in a concrete cave with your tie perfectly done up right to the top of your belt, prim and proper, making money. But this is baseball, this is what you’re here for, and just enjoy that moment.’” Svoboda recalls. “And it always put a huge smile on your face, because it’s absolutely right. We all have our own issues going on in our day-to-day lives, but when you’re here, appreciate that you can be playing baseball with people who you’re going to be lifelong friends with.”

RELATIONSHIPS ARE WHAT TRULY MATTER

Part of what made Walsh unique and charming to many was his appreciation for people—not texts, emails, or phone conversations on his flip cell—but everyday talks with real people.

These interactions held true meaning for Walsh, provided him with genuine enjoyment, and brightened the day of anyone he interacted with.

“To me, the one thing that always sticks out most is, whenever anyone ever came up to him and said, ‘Hey, Joe, how are you?’ he would say, ‘I’m fine, but more importantly, how are you,’” Lo Ricco says. “That’s the one thing he always said. I think he always valued other people more than himself…. He was the definition of a people’s person.”

One of Lo Ricco’s favorite stories about Walsh started with a normal day at the office. Walsh received a phone call that turned out to be a wrong number. At this point, any other person might have hung up and moved on with their day.

But Walsh spent the next five minutes attempting to help the caller and put him in touch with the right person.

Svoboda recalls a number of times when Walsh asked about him and his family. Walsh’s curiosity was not just our of politeness but was rooted in a legitimate interest in the lives of others.

“He took a remarkable interest in my family and my son,” Svoboda says. “It wasn’t just, ‘Hey, how’s the little guy doing?’ He genuinely cared about people.”

Walsh loved people more than anything else. Those who met him would experience the genuine care for others.

“All along, we thought that baseball was the love of his life, but it was really his family, his wife and his four daughters,” says Morgan Brown ’06, who served as a player and an assistant coach within the baseball program. “They meant the world to him, and he was extraordinarily proud of them…. But you would have thought that you were a part of his family, as a player or a coach. He was that sort of person.”

The reverberations of Walsh’s outgoing nature were widespread. Over the course of his life, Walsh had a tangible impact on many people, who both loved his personality and appreciated his fundamental desire to be around people.

Perhaps the place that demonstrated Walsh’s influence was his funeral.