Daniel B. Walsh

ALBANY - Daniel B. Walsh, 83, passed away Friday, Dec. 21, 2018, after a long illness.

Dan was a native of Olean and a graduate of St. Bonaventure University. He served a two-year Army tour in Korea. The next nine years he taught and coached basketball at Archbishop Walsh and Franklinville Central Schools.

He then pursued a career in politics, serving on the county legislature as minority leader. In 1972 he set his sights on the State Assembly and won his campaign. In 1979 he was asked by speaker Stanley Fink to be the first Western New York Democrat to be majority leader of the Assembly. Dan left the Assembly in 1987 to head the Business Council of NYS until he retired in 2006.

Dan served on various boards during his career, including the St. Bonaventure Board of Trustees, Albany Medical Center, Evergreen Bank and the NYS Trooper Foundation, as well as several others.

An avid golfer throughout his life, he was a longtime member of Schuyler Meadows Club and the Fort Orange Club.

Dan was the beloved husband of Susan (Frohe); son of Irish immigrants, the late Pierce Walsh and Mary Cronin Walsh; father of Courtney Walsh and Meghan (Joseph) Heister; and grandfather of Madeline, Daniel and Sophia Heister.

Dan was predeceased by his siblings, Kathryn Neubert, Josephine Brennan, Virginia Piccioli and Joseph Walsh.

Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday (Jan. 4, 2019) at Applebee Funeral Home, 403 Kenwood Ave., Delmar. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 5, 2019) at historic St. Mary's Church on Capitol Hill, corner of Lodge and Pine Streets, Albany. Interment will be at a later date in the Buffalo area.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dan's memory may be made to the Massry Family Children's Emergency Center at Albany Medical Center, 43 New Scotland Ave., Albany, NY 12208; or the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, 3 Oakland Ave., Menands, NY 12204.