BARRHEAD - What should someone do to celebrate their 90th birthday?
Well, if you are Walter Babiy, the answer is to play a round of golf with two of his friends.
On Sunday, April 23, the Cherhill farmer turned 90, and the next afternoon he joined his two friends, Clarence Assenheimer and John Strand, on the links at the Barrhead Golf Club.
However, anyone who knows Babiy wouldn't be surprised.
"I've always tried to stay active," he said during a break between the sixth and seventh holes.
Until four years ago, Babiy was a regular attendee at Vintage 55, an organized senior's league in Edmonton, for more than 30 years.
Babiy started playing hockey at about seven on a pond near Cherhill and was a talented player rising through the ranks, playing for the University of Alberta Golden Bears, where he received an engineering degree.
After graduation, Babiy would go on to work as a contractor, eventually forming Carmacks Construction Ltd. with a group of three friends.
"We all put in $25,000, bought some old, used equipment, and we started our own company. We had some tough times, but we muddled through it and built one of the most well-respected construction companies," he said.
Later in his career, Babiy would go on to become an engineering sciences instructor at NAIT for 11 years, where he became the first coach of the school's Ookpiks men's hockey team.
As for what Babiy has done in his retirement, he said he really hasn't retired.
"I still farm. We have agricultural grain, cattle, things like that," he said.
And although he is still working, unfortunately, Babiy said that he had to give up hockey when he was 86 after an accident on the farm.
However, he reiterated the importance of staying active, noting he has been golfing, on and off, for closing in on 60 years, starting when he was in his early 30s. He has been a member of the Barrhead Golf Club for 20 years or more.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
