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Walt is a 59 year old male living in Oreland, PA, just north of Philadelphia. For those who may have been around, for those who may remember, Walt was the local organizer for the SAA/Phillies, Rico Brogna event, summer 2000. He also was the first group leader in the Philadelphia area back in the early 2000's.
Walt has had the symptoms of AS since he was 17, formally diagnosed at age 40. Currently, he is med free. He is HLA-B27 positive.
He has been a participant in two NIH genetic studies; the last study was to determine why some people do better with AS than others (think - attitude...think determination).
Walt is married to Carol DeLancey. He has one son, Sam, who graduated from Lehigh U this year as an engineer. Sam is a participant in a NIH study for family genetics. Sam is not HLA-B27 positive... (yeah!)
Walt presently works as a consultant in Quality Engineering, Facilities Management and Energy Management. He was a Facilities Manager at a local Philadelphia school. He was a Quality Engineer for Rockwell International on the B1 program (the airplane that helped Reagan win the election). He worked for Northrop on the B2 stealth bomber program. He also worked for Stone & Webster Engineering as a Quality representative involved with building nuclear power plants.
And...is retired US Navy...nine years active, 11 reserve. He was activated for Desert Storm.
Walt is an AT hiker (think - Appalachian Trail). He has logged 600+ miles in the last 1 1/2 years...1600 miles still to go.
He is an associate member of the Ambler Area Running Club, a race marshal for local 5K's and a hike leader for the WVWA (Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association). The last hike was a 21 miler from Upper Gwynedd to the Canoe Club in Philly.
Walt is a member of Planet Fitness and works out 6x's/week. His physical activities contribute to minimizing pain and being med free.
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