I was a complete stranger to Roger Walsh when he drove up beside me in a Brockport parking lot. He asked me to retrieve the page of driving directions that had fallen behind his seat. As I obliged, he said he was delivering the computer on his front seat to Hamlin and I had saved him the terrible pain of getting in and out of his car. In a later interview I learned about many such used computers Roger has refurbished and delivered free to people in the Brockport area. March 2005 was his busiest month in which he received 14 old computers and delivered them in working order. Various individuals or groups have contributed the units. By word of mouth, Roger receives and gives away an average of two or three computers a month to people with limited financial means to buy a new one. He gave two computers to a single mom with a teenage daughter. The mother is a teacher and uses hers for preparing lessons, including power point presentations. Her daughter uses the second one for doing school essays and reports. Roger is slowed but undeterred by a longtime hip and leg ailment that has him using a cane. Never defeated, it was a temporary physical handicap that caused him to learn about computers and change course in life. After years of school teaching and administration, then seminars and radio talk shows on financial investing, Roger lost his voice for a year due to Bell's palsy which also paralyzed one side of his face. With used computers and books, he taught himself about computer technology. Starting with ATs, XTs, 386s, 486s and now Pentiums, he has kept up with advances in the field. Roger has taught computers use at the Sweden Senior Center for three years. He has as many as six beginners in the morning and six more advanced students in the afternoon for six Fridays in the course series. "He has a wide range of abilities and he seems able to work with anyone to further what they know or just get started on computers," said Ricki DeBaun, assistant director of the center. The center has six computers that are available for lessons or individual use, including accessing the internet. In a recent beginner's class, I met three of Roger's students. Chuck LaDue was there to keep up with his wife who already works the computer at home. He could learn from her, but, he quipped, "You know how it is when a wife tries to tell you what to do." Andy Rayburn worked with a main frame computer at Kodak for 20 years. He was impressed with computers going from room-sized to today's PC. Norma Rayburn likes saving time and money in communicating with family. "It's just easier to sit down and write an e-mail. You get an answer right back," she said. "And besides that, you don't have to run up a phone bill." Computer trouble shooting is another service Roger provides to seniors at their homes. The latest calls were minor problems. One couple wanted to get rid of junk mail and one lady lost her screen icon for playing Solitaire. As a boy, Roger experienced the WWII bombing at his home just outside Manchester, England. His family moved to the U.S. when he was eight years old. At 67 years of age, he has lived in North Chili for 16 years with his wife, Peggy, who is a professor at Roberts Wesleyan College. He has taught business and other courses as an adjunct professor at Empire State College and Roberts Wesleyan College. For 20 years, he has taught memoir writing in adult education programs and recently at the Sweden Senior Center. April 9, 2006 |
