April 3, 2008

A Runner Remembered: Joseph Francis Birch, Sr.

By Joe Birch, Jr.

The now missing photo hung in what we called "the sleeping porch," an unheated room atop the garage in our New Jersey home where family legend claimed that some of our hearty forebears took their slumbers. The picture was clipped from the sports page; it was framed back in 1947, a snapshot of high school glory. The photo showed a victorious runner breaking the tape with hands aloft, his face filled with joyous exhaustion, triumphant in a half mile event for New Jersey's Teaneck High School "Highwaymen." It was a photo of my Dad, Joseph Francis Birch, Sr., by far the fastest runner our family ever produced.

A newspaper account of one's father doing something that looks heroic becomes iconic for young eyes. So it was for me. We used the sleeping porch for storage, so viewings of the picture of Dad winning the half mile were infrequent but always impressive. Dad went on to run Cross Country for the legendary Coach James "Jumbo" Elliott at Villanova University, a track and field powerhouse. One of Dad's Cross Country teammates, Jim Brown, told me Coach Elliott used to sit on a rock and say, "hello boys" as the two would gallop by. Brown and Birch would wave back and whisper out of Elliott's earshot, "don't know our names, huh coach?" So apparently my Dad wasn't the fastest at Villanova but I assure you he could get a move on.

When I was about the age he was in the heroic photo, I challenged him to a race along the seashore. After promising not to let me win as his generous spirit would be inclined to do, we pounded the sand barefoot, full throttle. Although 25 years my senior, he dusted me. I mean to say it wasn't even close. The man still had it. I remember vividly the joy on my father's face as he attended my first indoor track and field event. I became enamored with the high jump after Dick Fosbury's so-called "Fosbury Flops" won the gold at the '68 Olympics. This became the uber-cool event in track and field for a while. Even though I couldn't jump my own height and used a scissor kick instead of Fosbury's cutting edge style, my Dad was beaming. He breathed deeply; he was back in his element: the world of track and field.

When the jogging craze of the 1970s hit, Dad logged some miles. But he let running go for his unswerving focus: my Mother and the five Birch children. The man had a family to feed and college tuitions to deposit. He was on the ground floor of the computer revolution of the early 1960s, a data processing manager for a Fortune 500 company in New York City. Yet foot speed remained a constant. On occasion, my father would allow us kids to accompany him to Manhattan. My brother, Pat, and I would literally have to run to keep up with his brisk pace. This came naturally as my grandfather, James Paul Birch, was a champion of NYC race walking. Grandfather was one of those guys with the straight leg stride and simultaneous flailing of the arms and shoulders. My Grandfather's major walking trophy adorned the Brooklyn apartment of his sister, my great aunt Lucy. Like Dad's victory photo, I would gaze in wonder at Grandpa's art deco style New York City Walking trophy with his name emblazoned on the base and a champion walker up top. Somehow the speed of my forefather's skipped a generation!

Although Dad never ran a marathon, he ultimately endured one of humanity's most challenging endurance events: Alzheimer's disease. My father suffered early onset with symptoms appearing at age 58. He struggled with this cruel disease for 14 years but it failed to dim the sparkle in his eyes.

Through the grace of God, my father spent the last 18 months and 10 days of his life here in Memphis. I had the privilege of overseeing his care at St. Peter Villa Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. While the combination of disease and aging were hardly the best of circumstances, we had a lot of laughs and ate well. A most cherished memory is the chance to pray each night with the man who guided our family in faith and taught each of his children to pray. Our family will be forever grateful for the welcoming spirit and tender, loving care Dad received from the Villa staff.

Each year the St. Peter Villa 5K is run in Dad's memory. The seventh annual St. Peter Villa 5K is planned for Saturday, April 12 at 9 a.m.

Registration is available at www.racesonline.com or at www.stpetervilla.org.

That photo finish of Dad breaking the tape somehow got lost during a move from the family home where both of us spent childhood. But the image of his victory lives in my memory and the spirit of his winning ways lives in my heart always.