Meet Thomas Walsh, Public Information Officer for Lower Merion Township & former news reporter.
Question: What are two things you can’t live without?
Answer: Libraries and movie theaters. It used to be bookstores and movie theaters; though I guess we’ve all learned to live without bookstores, but for a precious surviving few. As for theaters, I’m really hoping the Bala Theater will come back strong – it’s an important place for the Bala Avenue downtown and the City Avenue area in general.
Q: Who do you admire as a leader?
A: Ben Bradlee, the late, great editor of The Washington Post, and his former boss and publisher, the late Katherine Graham. They both seemed utterly fearless but were actually very diligent in their decision-making, and together made an indelible mark on journalism and open government. They both wrote scintillating autobiographies, too.
Q: What do you believe to be the key to success?
A: Staying creative, fresh, and doing for a living what you might well do as a volunteer.
Q: Mac or PC?
A: PC, I’m afraid. I’ve sort of always wanted to be a Mac person, but life just turned out this way. I guess it’s never too late to change.
Q: What were you doing the last time you looked at a clock and realized you had lost all track of time?
A: Walking-slash-jogging with Henry, our Corgi-Jack Russell terrier mix, through my Ardmore neighborhood.
Q: What book do you think everyone should read?
A: Currently, “All the Light You Cannot See,” by Anthony Doerr – and not just because it recently won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It’s simply beautiful storytelling and reads like a dream. For an all-time classic, I’d say Steinbeck’s “East of Eden.”
Thomas J. Walsh
Public Information Officer
Lower Merion Township
75 E. Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, PA 19003
(610) 645-6199; www.lowermerion.org
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