{"id":17376,"date":"2024-12-11T11:30:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T17:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=17376"},"modified":"2024-12-18T11:34:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T17:34:43","slug":"james-jim-thomas-walch-elkader-iowa-december-11-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2024\/12\/james-jim-thomas-walch-elkader-iowa-december-11-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"James \u201cJim\u201d Thomas Walch, Elkader, Iowa, December 11, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"James \u201cJim\u201d Thomas Walch, 71 of Elkader, Iowa passed away Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at St. Luke\u2019s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. James was born to Tom Walch and Betty (Costigan) Walch on February 19, 1953.\u00a0 Jim grew up in Elkader Iowa and like most boys spent a lot of time hunting and fishing with his father Tom.\u00a0 At his mother Betty’s wishes he took art lessons locally which had a significant effect later in life.\u00a0 He attended grade school at St. Joseph’s Catholic School, and High School at Central Community School in Elkader.\u00a0 Being small of stature in high school,\u00a0he was the Manager for various sports teams or was taping injuries for the football team.\u00a0 He was involved with the arts and worked with a local music band “Solar Wind”.\u00a0 After graduating high school Jim attended Minneapolis College of Art and Design.\u00a0 He excelled at lithographic printmaking and painting, selling artwork as a student.\u00a0 At school he formed a partnership with a friend, David Williams, painting apartments to help pay for college.\u00a0 In recognition of his outstanding artwork, Jim was granted close to a year of college credits.<\/p>\n

Upon graduation with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, in 1975 he moved to Omaha to sell his artwork in galleries there and in Des Moines.\u00a0 Jim contacted his friend David in New Hampshire, and they formed a new partnership, Walch and Williams Studio, creating fine art jewelry which they sold at Galleries throughout New England and nearby states.\u00a0 In 1980 their work was highlighted in a show in the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute.\u00a0 \u00a0In 1989 Walch and Williams Studio moved to Elkader to enable Jim to spend more time in his hometown with his parents.\u00a0 His business thrived in his hometown.\u00a0 Jim was able to go on cherished fishing excursions with his dad and enjoyed many glorious days fly fishing.\u00a0 He happily reconnected with Elkader and in his free time enjoyed fishing, cycling, and canoeing.\u00a0 He loved fossil hunting in the Driftless Area and over the years, with encouragement from friend and fossil expert Brian Gossman, the Walch and Williams partnership began a new business of fossil restoration.<\/p>\n

Volunteering in Elkader was especially important to Jim.\u00a0 For many years on special holidays he and his Dad would join friends to raise dozens of memorial flags at the courthouse.\u00a0 He served on the board of Main Street Project from its origin.\u00a0 Jim also served on the board of the Carter House Museum for over 30 years.\u00a0 At the museum he orchestrated the addition of the Carter House Annex, raising much of the funding and serving as a contractor during construction.\u00a0 He remained on the board until he passed away.\u00a0 Jim and local friend Luther Hill formed a committee to restore the Elkader Shelter House when it was in danger of being torn down.\u00a0 With remarkable success, they raised the funds and recruited the workers to restore the building including the replacement of the widows walk.<\/p>\n

After retirement from his jewelry business, Jim began working at Fire Farm Inc., a lighting design company in Elkader.\u00a0 He learned many technical facets of the business ranging from powder coating to heat forming acrylic, and ultimately developing into a CGI designer.<\/p>\n

During these years Jim spent much time expanding as a photographer and often displayed his work at the annual Elkader Art in the Park show.\u00a0 Most recently he enjoyed creating art doing elaborate CGI drawings, often times combining his photographs with his CGI drawings.<\/p>\n

Jim was a great Artist; he did not work for the financial gain but for the act of creating wonderful things.\u00a0 His honesty and integrity were evident in everything he did.\u00a0 His work evokes spiritual images, sometimes ethereal and other times merely contemplation of a mystery.\u00a0 In recent days he has often been referred to as a kind and gentle soul.\u00a0 What a true and fine testament this is to a good man.<\/p>\n

Jim leaves siblings: Susie Pohlmann (Lee), Mary Anne David, Tom Walch (Lisa). Nieces and Nephews: Jennifer Swagler (Godchild) (Matt), Eric David, Sara Ehrecke (Ben), Audrey Sidey (John), Michael Walch (Godchild), Megan Walch, an incredibly special 105-year-old Aunt Marge Costigan, 6 Great Nieces and Nephews, many other relatives, close friends, Linda Varner, Charlotte Varner, Donna Williams, and partner for 54 years David Williams.<\/p>\n

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.<\/p>\n

In lieu of flowers please make memorial gifts payable to the Carter House Museum PO box 444 Elkader, Iowa 52043<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James \u201cJim\u201d Thomas Walch, 71 of Elkader, Iowa passed away Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at St. Luke\u2019s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. James was born to Tom Walch and Betty (Costigan) Walch on February 19, 1953.\u00a0 Jim grew up in Elkader Iowa and like most boys spent a lot of time hunting and fishing with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1044],"class_list":["post-17376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-walch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17376"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17379,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17376\/revisions\/17379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}