02/20/2026
Yesterday was a special day at the former Taylor Hospital (more on the former part later). We celebrated a living legend on another step of his amazing journey. This is a longer post than usual but well worth it because to paint the picture, we have to start back in August when we took our first tour of Taylor.....
During that tour we were joined by a long time maintenance extraordinaire named Jimmy Wisniewski, who tagged along but truly lead the way. Jimmy's knowledge of the building was apparent, but his character and ingenuity stood out even more. We knew that if we took on the hospital, that we needed him on our team. Shortly after purchasing Taylor, we met with him which started a chain of events that we couldn't have imagined.
A few minutes into our first sit-down with Jimmy, he said he was glad to help but if we really wanted to succeed we needed to get this old retired guy, who knew everything about the building, on our team and boy was he right. He said the guy lives at the Jersey shore during the warmer months but was sure he'd be willing to help. We called him right away and hit it off immediately. He told us he would drive up from the shore and meet with us first thing Monday morning and he did just that. The man we are talking about is the great Walt Shank!
Walt is a legend within the walls of Taylor! When we first met himin person, we could feel it, we were embarking on something truly special. Even though he retired in 2020, Walt wanted nothing more than to help us on our mission to bring back healthcare services to Ridley Park. He loved not only the hospital, but the entire community. Heck, he lives in the community and worked in the hospital for 39 years and even met his wife Peggy there. She worked at Taylor for 42 years. His passion about the project was felt immediately and we knew we struck gold!
Since coming to help us in September, Walt has made a huge impact on so many people from his co-workers, vendors, former employees, community members, emergency services workers and many more. Not only does he know every square inch of the building, but the man is just a remarkably special human being. When you see him, you have no choice but to get happy and smile. In a very quick time period, he helped coordinate getting all of the plumbing fixed, got the building filled with water and in the nick of time before winter hit, he got boiler #1 fired up; or as we call it, HIS BABY! To pull off what he, Jimmy, Harry and the team did in that time period to get the heat on, was absolutely incredible. Along the way, there were challenges and obstacles but Walt was there every step of the way. Whether it was one of the 4AM fire alarm calls that he arrived for in 5 minutes, diagnosing heater issues, solving plumbing mysteries, electrical issues of just enjoying a cup of coffee and a long talk with the crew, Walt was always there in great spirits and ready rock. And man, did we have some real fun throughout!
We could go on and on about the journey we have had together in the last 5 months and could tell many stories about it. But don't worry, if you know Walt, you know he will tell you stories upon stories upon stories. But now, it's time for him and his wife to travel the country as they have planned on doing for a while and then getting ready for his favorite time of the year at the shore. We know he will be back to visit us plenty but on the daily we will miss his infamous "YO DUDE, HOW YA DOIN" or "WELL, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN IS..." and everything about him. He knows, we will be calling him plenty throughout his travels.
Getting medical care in Delaware County has been extremely challenging since last year with our entire county only having two hospitals. We are doing what we can to change that and Walt Shank is a huge part of that success story, because there is no doubt, we are going to help bring much needed medical services back to the community. Walt, that mission would not have been the same without you! You have touched so many lives up until this point and you will also touch the lives of everyone who will receive medical care in the future RIDLEY PARK MEDICAL CAMPUS. We are forever grateful that you are a part of our team but more importantly that we can call you our friend.
Please join us in saying thank you to THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND, Walt Shank! Walt, you are the greatest and we love you! 🙌🙏💪❤️
