ST. PETER — A few years ago, when Larry Taylor told his wife he was ready to step down from serving as a corporate vice president, he got a quick response.
“You better find something to do because I’m not going to be around much,” said Thalia Taylor, amused to recall the conversation.
It’s not that she’s gallivanting around in boutiques or lounging on the beach. Her calendar is full up with commitments to volunteer at several organizations, including a free medical clinic, and she’s a deacon for Union Presbyterian Church. She’s worked with elementary-school students with disabilities and served as a volunteer hospice caregiver. Thalia helped construct St. Peter’s Treemendous Playground, skills she’s continued to hone during her 20-plus years on house-building crews for Habitat For Humanity in St. Peter.
Thalia is 78.
“She was excited when, at 76, she was allowed to do some work on the roof of a house. That had been something on her bucket list,” said Larry, who is 77.
His “to-do” list includes working on his family genealogy.
Yard work and shoveling snow are not in his plans; but like his wife, Larry’s no slouch. He heeded Thalia’s advice by finding two new projects to add to his slate of volunteer activities. Larry’s putting his organizational skills to use at the local food shelf and he’s become a math tutor for fourth graders at a St. Peter elementary school.
“Right now, we’re working on our multiplication tables,” he said last week.
Cindy Favre, St. Peter Area Food Shelf manager, said her nonprofit has benefited from the management skills Larry developed while working with Taylor Corp.
“He helps us think through the whole process to figure out what’s the most logical choice,” Favre said.
The emergency pantry is in half of The Friends Building (Petra Petros) on South Third Street. Most Thursday evenings, while Larry is overseeing inventory at the food shelf, Thalia is next door volunteering at the free medical clinic.
“She is one of our interpreters,” said Dr. Caroline Stelter.
“When I need her to help with someone who speaks Spanish, I text Thalia … and she usually says ‘sure.'”
Communicating care instructions can be difficult with patients for whom English is not their first language, even when a computer app is available for such situations.
“We could use an iPad, but the volunteers are much better at picking up on the nuances, so we prefer face to face,” Stelter said.
The doctor said Thalia is especially capable of describing medical terminology in Spanish, a skill she developed over 10 years serving as a translator in Mexico with Minnesota Doctors For People teams.
Her love of serving others also has resulted in trips to Guatemala where she took part in Common Hope’s effort to help Indigenous people build housing and in the Starkey Hearing Foundation’s program to fit children with hearing aids. Thalia’s also traveled with Starkey volunteers on a trip to the East African country of Malawi as part of the foundation’s So The World Can Hear campaign.
Back home in St. Peter, Thalia and Larry are well known for their shared values — both to townsfolk and to the Gustavus Adolphus campus community.
“As individuals they are incredible, but as a team — it would be hard to compare them to anyone else,” said Ann Rosenquist Fee, director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter.
The Taylors regularly served together as greeters at an annual fundraiser that supports the center.
“They would stand together by the front door to the Souper Bowl welcoming everyone. But that’s not the only way they gave of themselves to help the Art Center,” Fee said.
Larry said his parents are to be credited for showing him examples of service to neighbors.
“I grew up in a big family on a farm near Comfrey,” said Larry, a brother of well-known billionaire businessman Glen Taylor. “We didn’t have a lot, but our mother always stressed the importance of helping others. That’s the way it was in Thalia’s family, too.”
When meeting the Taylors for the first time, strangers may think them mismatched. Larry is nearly 6-foot-2, white haired and of Northern European descent. Thalia stands at 4-foot-7, has dark hair and skin, and was born in Mexico City.
They met while students at colleges in southern states. Scholarships helped Thalia complete secondary school classes in Mexico; she then went on to attend post-secondary classes in the United States.
Soon after their college graduations in 1968, they eloped.
“We’ve renewed our vows three times since then,” Larry said.
In 1976, the Taylors moved to St. Peter, where they met former Peace Corps members Carol and Joel Moline. There were two children in both sets of the then-young families.
“We’ve become good friends; every year we celebrate New Year’s together,” Carol said.
“Our adopted son and daughter were born in Korea,” she said, explaining one reason for her strong bond with Thalia.
“We do the things friends do together, like going out for coffee. She is so energetic and fun to be around,” said Carol, who so far has declined opportunities to join her buddy for skydiving or jumping into Hallett’s Pond during St. Peter’s Polar Plunge fundraiser for Special Olympics.
The two women share an interest in supporting their community and its people. Both were awarded St. Peter’s Women Celebrating Women honors.
In 2018, Thalia was made an honorary alumni of Gustavus in recognition of her service to the Friendship Families program. Forty years ago, the Taylors began to volunteer with the Gustavus Adolphus program that connects its international students with host parents.
“I’ve been here for 24 years; they were already serving as hosts parents to international students when I arrived,” said Jeff Anderson, assistant director of International Student and Scholar Services.
Anderson said the Taylors have provided international students who were unprepared for Minnesota’s winters with warm clothes. At times, they’ve helped pay dental or medical expenses for a student.
To date, the Taylors have served as hosts to 68 students from 35 different countries.
“We call them our kids,” Larry said.
The couple has taught many students how to drive so they could obtain driver’s licenses.
“Their parents really appreciated not having to do it, and the students really preferred not having their parents do the teaching,” Larry said.
Many times, girls they have been hosts to come to the couple’s home to learn how to bake cookies and sweet breads. The Taylors insist the baked goods are taken to the campus dorms and shared with roommates.
On special occasions, students are invited to the couple’s home to share meals.
“We had one meal where seven of the students had dietary restrictions that had to be taken into account. They were Islamic, Hindu, Orthodox, gluten free, lactose intolerant, vegetarian and a vegan. We had a buffet with labels on who could eat what,” Larry said.
“Being with the students for four years, you become very close to them. Thalia continues to keep in contact with them and their parents after they graduate. The effect Thalia has had on these students is profound. She is mom to them,” he said.
“The Gustavus international students — knowing that Thalia, like themselves, came from another country to attend college — have a special bond with her,” Larry said.
“Originally you were to have one student at a time. In the 1990s we were asked to take a second and then a third student, and it has just been steadily increasing. New students hear about Thalia from our current students and request that they become one of our ‘kids.'”
The couple’s son, Kenneth, has made Alaska his home for many years. Their daughter, Thalia Cecelia, died from medical issues in 2019 at age 45.
Being hosts to Gustavus students does not fill the hole in their hearts left by the loss of their child; but being surrounded with young people does help ease the pain.
“We get to see them grow from teenagers into young adults,” Larry said.
The couple set up an endowed scholarship and a renewable medical expenses fund for international students at Gustavus. In 2018, they established an endowed scholarship at the St. Peter High School for students that have limited financial resources or are the first from their family to continue with some type of education beyond high school, be it college, vocational or a trade school.
Thalia is humble about the awards she received and proud to say she’s a U.S. citizen.
“Sometimes, when I am walking through the arboretum at Gustavus, I think about all that this country has given me, an education, Larry, a good life,” Thalia said.