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Al Welch was a Frost Valley employee. In 1969 I was the counseler in Totem Village Cabin 2 from about mid July thru the end of the summer. For reasons long forgotten, they decided to have maintenance personnel sleep in the cabins. Al (usually known as Alfie) joined us in Cabin 2. We didn’t see a lot of him since he left early in the morning and came back later in the evening. But he was always cheerful and chatty with the campers when he was around. However, maintenance was clearly his interest in camp. He was a strong, stocky guy who played tight end for Tri-Valley High School, as I remember. Even then, just finishing up high school, he was clearly a capable member of the maintenance dept. He was also a heavy equipment operator and I remember one day when he drove Carl Hess crazy the way he was driving a backhoe.
He likely worked for the camp for more than just that one summer but I don’t remember for sure. I believe he went into the Navy soon after high school and I remember him spending time on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately he had some health problems later in life. At the time of Halbe’s memorial in October, Bill Devlin indicated that Al was not well at all. So it is with great sadness to hear of his passing. While most staffers from that era probably didn’t know him, he was a big part of the maintenance dept and thus the Frost Valley family.
