A new style pervades the public areas and corridors of Friendship Village Sunset Hills.

James T. “Terry” Walsh, a retired Army colonel and former chief operating officer at Ascension Health Senior Care, recently became executive director of the senior living community.

Lydia Seibert, chair of the local board for the two Friendship Village communities in Chesterfield and Sunset Hills, praised Walsh for his leadership qualities and expertise at every point in the continuum of care.

“His passion for providing the full spectrum of senior services to the St. Louis community and his vision for the future of Friendship Village inspired us from his first interview …,” she stated in a news release.

In assuming the post, Walsh makes a point of interacting with residents by having coffee with them every morning and moving through the dining room in the evening before he heads home after a long day.

Born in Evanston, Ill., Walsh moved with his family to the Lake of the Ozarks area, where he went to high school. He graduated from Westminster College in Fulton on an ROTC scholarship and there met his wife, Christine, a Kirkwood native and fellow Westminster student.

Their two sons, Nathan, 16, and Jon, 13, attend school in Town and Country.

He earned a master’s degree in strategy from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., and a master’s degree in health care administration from Baylor Uni-versity in Waco, Texas.

Walsh, 53, declared his new post as exec-utive director the “best job I’ve ever had. The quality of the job satisfies me as does its intrinsic reward in working with the residents in a meaningful way.”

He retired from the military in 2007 after 22 years and answered his wife’s desire to live in St. Louis so that their boys could be close to their grandparents.