Sterling Taylor has always had the ability to talk people into anything. In fact, the gregarious 72-year-old retired veteran landed his current job as pool attendant at Life Time Fitness by convincing general manager Theresa Ohme to let him fill in for a few shifts. Nine years later, Taylor is a fixture at the pool shared by the fitness club and the Maple Grove Community Center, greeting regulars and newcomers alike with a ready smile and a fresh towel.
“It’s a fun job, and it keeps me motivated,” Taylor says. “I was in public service for most of my life, so it fits my personality.” Getting to know people is his favorite perk of the job. “I know 300-some people on a first-name basis,” he says. “One guy told me that I know more about him than his wife,” Taylor says.
Taylor’s lust for life and passion for serving others helped him weather many emotional and physical setbacks, and he is a testament to the power of remaining positive and purposeful in the face of life’s many challenges.
A native of Portland, Ore., Taylor entered the Marine Corps at 19, spending two years as a military police officer at the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego before heading to Vietnam in the spring of 1966.
“They were looking for volunteers, since Vietnam wasn’t that big a deal yet,” Taylor says. “There were 250 guys on this naval base, and only two of us volunteered.”
Taylor served as a heli-team leader as part of the Special Landing Force before he contracted malaria and spent two months sidelined in the malaria ward.
He returned to combat as a corporal squad leader, but in 1967 he was shot by a sniper and returned to Seattle for rehabilitation.
Once home, Taylor attended a USO event in Los Angeles where he met and fell in love with a young woman. They got engaged, but she passed away from cancer at age 21.
“I was pretty shook up,” Taylor says. “I was 24. I’d just lost my brother in Vietnam. I developed this attitude of living consciously, day by day, with an appreciation of life.”
When he went to the airport to pick up his late fiancé’s cousin as a favor to her parents, he fell in love again. The couple returned to her native Minnesota, where Taylor had a 30-year career as maintenance and security supervisor at Hennepin Technical College before retiring in 2004. Taylor and his wife, Debbie, have been together for 44 years and raised three kids. One of Taylor’s proudest moments was seeing his middle daughter, Bridget, join the Marines 30 years to the day after he did.
Over the years, Taylor developed a passion for cycling; he has biked thousands of miles across multiple states, competed in eight Ironman triathlons and even helped set a new Guinness World Record for largest cycling class in 2010 at Target Center.
Even though he was struck by a car while crossing Weaver Lake Road on his bicycle on his way home from Life Time a few years ago, Taylor refuses to let a few hard knocks keep him down.
“It was a miracle that car didn’t kill me, but I was back to work in two weeks,” Taylor says. “That’s the way I’ve been all my life.”
Taylor says his job at the pool lets him connect with young people and pass on some of the wisdom he’s gleaned from a lifetime of finding the joy in every day.
“If you know how to relate to them, kids open up to you big time,” he says. “I’ve got a lot of kid in me at 72.”
Asked if he’s planning on slowing down any time soon, Taylor laughs.
“I used to say I was going to live to be 100, but I changed it to 105. When people ask me why 105, I tell them that when I get to 100, I’m going to start relaxing and taking it easy.”
Visit Sterling Taylor at Life Time Fitness.
