FRIKNI) ROBERT JAY WALSH 



-M i 



A Tribute to Judge Walsh. 



BY CHARLES ARTHUR MOORE, JR., GREEN- 

 WICH, CONNECTICUT. 



Judge Walsh was so much bigger and 

 finer than anything which he accomplish- 

 ed in his active and successful life that 

 those who knew him well must realize 

 very keenly that his character and the 

 influence he exerted upon everyone with 

 whom he came in contact are the out- 

 standing and paramount achievements of 

 his career. 



What WE DO is largely a question of 

 opportunity; what we are depends upon 

 onrselves. The qualities of the soul given 

 to us at birth are developed as life goes 

 on, well or ill, as nature impels us. 

 Judge Walsh was fortunate beyond 

 most men in material ways. Yet he 

 did not amass a huge fortune nor ar- 

 rive at national reputation. But when 

 he stood out head and shoulders above 

 most of the so-called great, and in- 

 finitely above those whose only claim 

 to notice is wealth, is in what he him- 

 self was. 



The biggest accomplishment, the 

 greatest success of Judge Walsh's life, 

 was the man himself. He justified his 

 life in every phase and turn of his char- 

 acter. 



He was a true leader of men because 

 he had by birth the heart of a leader, 

 honorable, brave and above all, kind 

 and generous. And those character- 

 istics that were his by birth he made 

 the most of through cleanly and brave- 

 ly living a long life. 



What Judge Walsh did in Greenwich 

 he could as easily have done in Wall 

 Street or Washington and on a scale 

 magnified a hundred-fold. The same 

 qualities that made him the recognized 

 great man of this town could have as 

 easily made him the great man any- 

 where else in any company. 



But he chose this town for the scene 

 of his life and, loving the place, he ex- 

 ercised his talents here amongst us. 

 With none of the glamor that is thrown 

 about far-off names by distance and 

 imperfect knowledge, vears ago Judge 

 Walsh became recognized here among 

 those with whom he met almost daily 

 on intimate terms, as a great man. And. 

 a far more difficult test of real great- 

 ness, he remained our unchallenged, 

 unquestioned first citizen through many 

 years after having won that place in 



our opinion. And as our great man he 

 died. 



'there is a particularly characteristic 

 touch in the fact that he was prouder 

 of having been the counsel for the 

 town of Greenwich for a period of 

 thirty-five years of changing political 

 administrations of the town govern- 

 ment than of any of the more showy 

 and solid honors that came to him from 

 the larger outside world ; a fact that he 

 frequently mentioned. A clean, big and 

 straightforward citizen of Greenwich 

 has left the town and the people, his 

 friends that he loved. 



The Power of Kindness. 

 Once in a while, in recent years, some 

 of the "reformers" who occasionally 

 try to make a stir in Greenwich have 

 referred to the Walshes as local poli- 

 tical bosses. Not one of them seemed 

 to understand the reason for the great 

 personal popularity of R. Jay Walsh, 

 and why the candidates he preferred 

 were most likely to be nominated and 

 elected. The truth is that hundreds, 

 perhaps thousands, of people in Green- 

 wich w r ere indebted to him for acts of 

 kindness. He was continually helping 

 people in one way or another — people 

 who were in a position to give him 

 nothing in return but gratitude, and 

 some of whom did not give even that. 

 Rich men recognized his remarkable 

 abilitv ; poor men were able to ap- 

 proach him with confidence of getting 

 from him sympathy in trouble, advice 

 in perplexity, and substantial help in 

 time of need. R. Jay Walsh had the 

 advantage of experiencing the trials 

 and struggles of a poor boy. It was a 

 good training. He might have worked 

 for most of his life in a country smithy. 

 but for his ambition to be what he be- 

 came. And he had to make his own 

 way in the world. He had no rich 

 friends or relatives to assist him to an 

 education, none to help him to advance. 

 He had to rely upon his own efforts. 

 He v r as such an apt student in a coun- 

 try school that he qualified, as a youth., 

 for a position as teacher in Greenwich, 

 and some of his former pupils say that 

 he was the best teacher they ever 

 knew. Greenwich should remember R. 

 Jay Walsh as an example of what can 

 be achieved by an ambitious boy. — The 

 Stamford Advocate. 



