Albert Wallick

Biography of Albert (Al) H. Wallick
Al was born August 23rd, 1928 in Hinckley, Minnesota, the 4th of 4 sons. His parents, Edward Alvin and Bessie Irene Watkins, were both 37 years old at the time of his birth and he was 9 years younger than his next youngest brother. Hinckley is a farming community about midway between Duluth and the twin cities and Al’s father ran a farm and raised milk cows. Al didn’t have electricity in his house until he was 8 years old.
Al attended high school in Hinckley and after graduation worked as a linotype operator in Minneapolis. His three older brothers were away fighting in World War II and Al just missed out, because of his age, (he was 13 when Pearl Harbor was attacked), and the fact that 3 of 4 Wallick boys were already serving. His two oldest brothers, John and George, were killed in the Pacific theatre, one in the Army and the other in the Navy. The third brother, Bob survived his Navy enlistment, also serving in the Pacific aboard a destroyer. Al enlisted in the air force in 1950 and eventually wound up as a Staff Sergeant in a print shop on Governor’s Island in NY bay. He sidelined as a manager in the enlisted club, where he met Rose Musacchia at an organized dance. They were married in 1953, just a few days after Al was honorably discharged from the air force. They moved to Minnesota where he struggled to provide for his growing family. They had three boys, each born 15 months apart. In 1961 they moved to Newark, NJ where Al began working as an insurance claims supervisor. A year later they moved to Brooklyn, NY where he became the only non-Italian in Rose’s close Sicilian family. Seven years later, in 1969, seeking a safer environment for the kids, they left New York City behind and moved “upstate” about 100 miles northwest of the city to a tiny village called Wurtsboro. In the early years there, Al continued working in the city, requiring a brutal commute every day and night. After a few years he landed local employment and had more free time, with which he began serving the community as a councilman, scout leader, volunteer fireman and joined the American Legion. After the last son flew the coop, Al underwent a triple spinal fusion in 1978 after suffering an on-the-job injury. From that point on, he was out of the workforce, having been classified as fully disabled. They moved to Florida where Al’s volunteerism really blossomed. He joined the Knights of Columbus, earning many honors and eventually holding the office of Grand Knight. Al and Rose volunteered together at the VA clinic, hospice and church thrift shop. This was when he began his long tradition of baking Christmas cookies, producing literally thousands of the treats and bestowing great tins of them on friends and family. At one point they moved to eastern Tennessee, where Al was shocked to find that home insurance was almost unaffordable because there was no local fire department and the fire risk was enormous. Al organized the locals who created a volunteer fire department, with Al serving as the chairman of the board of directors. This may have been his greatest achievement and he was commended by the county executive when he moved away years later. Back in Florida, Al continued his organizing, administrative and serving roles, becoming the president of the resident’s association at the senior apartments where they lived in Melbourne for many years. The association was very active, raising funds, throwing parties and being the social focus of the large complex. It was there that his beloved wife Rose passed away in 2008. After recovering from his grief, he decided to get both knees replaced. At the same time. Sadly, his surgeon was a real hack, who later lost his license, and he botched the operation, leaving Al with extreme pain, especially in his left knee. A few months later, at the age of 81 years young, Al decided to move to California to be near his youngest son and daughter-in-law. While many people would have crawled into a shell, Al rebuilt his entire social network, earning friends around the apartment building and becoming a fixture at the Senior Citizen’s Center. He volunteered in the lunch room, preparing the utensils for the many lunch guests every day, wrapping knife, fork and spoon in a napkin just so and carefully placing the assembly in a bin for dispensing. While many might have considered this task unimportant or even trivial, Al took great pains to ensure the quality of his work and that the supply was large enough to meet the demand of the ensuing days. It was during this time that Al underwent Deep-Brain Stimulation surgery at USC to correct an inherited tremor in his hands. This tremor had existed for years, making it impossible for him to write and very difficult to eat, brush his teeth and even put a key in a lock. Al bravely underwent brain surgery wherein probes were placed in his brain and battery packs in his chest. The battery packs sent signals to the probes in his brain which quelled the tremors and vastly improved his quality of life. Ominously, his neurologist at USC thought he saw evidence of Parkinson’s disease in Al some years ago and this finding presaged his eventual decline. On top of that, Al was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in March 2014 which ultimately took his life on February 7th at age 86.
Al superbly combined the qualities of leadership and servitude. He never sought the limelight, being content with doing a good job for its own sake, but could effectively rally people to address a problem or right a wrong. It’s difficult to not be inspired by his life.