From Cowley to a message of gratitude: Tim Welch publishes first book at 83

From Cowley to a message of gratitude: Tim Welch publishes first book at 83

By John Bernhisel

For many people in the Cowley, Byron and Lovell areas, the name Welch is a familiar one. Tim Welch, who grew up on a farm outside Cowley, is one of those connections to the community’s past who still carries those roots with him today. Now living in South Jordan, Utah, the 1960 Cowley High School graduate has added a new accomplishment to a long and varied life: publishing his first book at the age of 83.

Welch’s recently released e-book, “The Powerful Benefits of an Attitude of Gratitude,” draws on a lifetime of experience working in mental health, social services and leadership. But before that career ever began, his story started right here in the Big Horn Basin.

“I was born and raised on the farm outside of Cowley to Art and Mary Welch,” he said. After graduating from Cowley High School in 1960, he earned a music scholarship to Utah State University thanks to his trumpet playing. A memorable moment from his high school years nearly derailed that opportunity. After being selected to perform a trumpet solo at a music festival concert, Welch realized his grandmother had accidentally driven home with his instrument.

With no cell phones in those days, Welch called the Wyoming Highway Department and asked them to locate her car on the road. They managed to stop her and send her back in time for the performance.

“That night I played my trumpet solo and ended up getting a full-ride music scholarship for my first two years at Utah State,” he recalled. It also became one of his earliest memories of strangers going out of their way to help someone they didn’t know, and the powerful gratitude that followed and the difference it made in his life.

During college he sang with choral groups and served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northeast England. While there, he helped form a traveling quartet known as the “Mormon Sons,” performing concerts across England and Ireland. One of those concerts was attended by Stephen R. Covey, who later became world famous as the author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

After returning home, Welch shifted his studies toward social work. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Utah State and later completed a master’s degree at Arizona State University. His professional career eventually led him into leadership roles overseeing mental health services across seven states and even into British Columbia.

Despite decades spent in professional administration, Welch never forgot his Wyoming beginnings. In fact, his personal life later circled back to the Big Horn Basin in an unexpected way.

As a junior in high school, Welch once dated a Lovell and Byron girl named Judy Doerr. The two eventually went their separate ways. Many years later, after both were widowed, Welch attended a July 24 celebration dance in Cowley, where his father was playing drums in the orchestra.

“And wouldn’t you know it, I ran into Judy again,” he said.

The reunion rekindled their connection. Within months the two were married and have since made their home together in Utah.

Welch’s book grew out of his decades of counseling and leadership experience in the mental health field. Throughout his career he noticed that one simple principle consistently helped individuals, couples and families improve their lives: focusing on gratitude.

“A good deal of what I did in counseling was to encourage people to focus on what they felt grateful for,” he said. “I don’t recall a time when that focus wasn’t helpful.”

Motivated by those experiences, Welch spent more than a year researching studies, articles and personal stories about gratitude and its impact on well-being. The result was a 14-chapter book that explores how gratitude, kindness, optimism and charity can influence relationships and personal happiness.

While Welch wrote several of the chapters himself, the book also draws heavily from respected writers and researchers in the field. It even includes references to music, inspirational talks and short videos that Welch believes reinforce the message of gratitude.

One chapter examines the simple power of a smile, while another explores scientific studies showing that writing down three things you are grateful for each day can improve personal and family relationships for months afterward.

Now approaching his 84th birthday, Welch says the book represents something he has long believed: It is never too late to contribute something meaningful.

“I spent a lot of years working with people and trying to help improve lives,” he said. “This book is simply an extension of that effort.”

Though he and Judy now live in Utah, the couple still keeps up with their Wyoming roots through longtime subscriptions to the Lovell Chronicle and fond memories of the Cowley and Lovell communities where their story began.

And if Welch makes it back to the Basin this summer, he said he would be happy to reconnect with old friends and neighbors who remember the Welch and Doerr families from years gone by.

After all, gratitude, he believes, often begins with remembering the places and people who shaped us.