Bicycles, animals, people important to Bryan Walkling
Bryan Walkling has been responsible for a lot of smiles in Spokane.
The entrepreneur from Valleyford with the gentle voice and a welcoming smile saw an entire generation of young bikers graduate from training wheels to 10-speeds as the former owner of Bryan’s Valley Spoke ‘n’ Sport. Before he sold the shop in 1998 he opened a miniature zoo, showing countless families the mysteries of fainting goats or the joys of raising pot-bellied pigs.
“He enjoyed life totally and completely,” said his sister, Cheryl Didier.
Walkling died July 8 at 47 of multiorgan failure, but only after a life filled with the things he loved and years of service to those around him.
Born in Torrance, Calif., Bryan Walkling moved with is family when he was a teenager to Valleyford, where he would make his home for the next 32 years.
Before graduating from Freeman High School, he worked at bike shops in California and Spokane. Eventually he helped open and manage the Spokane Valley Spoke ‘n’ Sport next to Halpin’s before buying the shop.
Walkling spent the next decade or so selling bikes and skateboards, always looking for the next trend in cycling and spending hours helping kids find the right bike or skateboard part.
“He had quite the following. The young people loved Bryan,” Didier said.
Young riders would stop in to talk shop with Walkling, she said, and the store became more than just a business to him and his clientele.
He once brought in ramps and held a skateboard competition in front of his store. He sponsored several Spokane Valley youth baseball teams. And many Christmas Eves he’d come home late after waiting for the last Santa to pick up a new bicycle on hold at the shop.
After selling the store, he turned his time to his family’s land in Valleyford and caring for his parents.
“It was always nice knowing Bryan was taking care of Mom and Dad,” Didier said.
There he was the man to see for many families looking to buy a hand-fed bird or a pot-bellied pig. At Bryan’s Country Critters they could also see a hedgehog, miniature deer, a possum named Radar and many other exotic critters Walkling cared for.
In 1995 KXLY’s Rick Lukens did a television news story on Walkling’s rare fainting goats, born with a genetic defect that makes them pass out when startled.
Didier described her brother as a confirmed bachelor, and he took full advantage of it.
Walkling and his dad James spent a lot of time on a lot of lakes and caught a lot of fish, said Didier.
He tied his own flies and routinely became the guy to seek on shore to find out what was biting that day.
“He was easy to get along with,” said his mom Vivian Walkling.
Even in the hospital, her son played jokes on the medical staff and joshed one of the nurses because her name brought to mind a famous line from a movie.
He had a steadfast Christian faith and attended Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Spokane with his family.
When Walkling realized he would lose his long fight with his illness, his faith was unmoved.
“That’s all right. I’m in perfect peace,” Vivian Walkling said he told her. He died the next morning after telling his loved ones he looked forward to seeing them in heaven.