Jimmy Walker: Heavyweight Benefactor
By Cassaundra Brooks
Before he was known as the legendary Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay provided the punch that knocked out Sonny Liston in 1964, for which he pronounced himself “The Greatest” boxer of all time. Thirty years later, long-time Arizona resident and businessman Jimmy Walker created the popular charity event Celebrity Fight Night, providing punches that are helping to knock out other kinds of opponents, most particularly the disease that plagues the great champion himself—Parkinson’s Disease. In fact, the $45 million raised since the first Celebrity Fight Night held in 1994 has benefited many charities, including the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at the Barrow Neurological institute.
Walker’s Celebrity Fight Night seems a logical fit for a man of his background and situation. A resident of Arizona since 1957, Walker attended Phoenix Central High School before beginning an education at Arizona State University on a basketball scholarship. This background in sports provided the basis for much of his career and charity work. As president of Walker Financial, LLC, an estate-planning and wealth-management firm, Walker meets many professional athletes who walk through his doors. And, as one of a group of investors that purchased the Denver Racquets in 1974 and brought the team to Phoenix, Walker had the opportunity to purchase controlling interest in the team they renamed the Phoenix Racquets. After signing the number-one tennis player in the world, Chris Evert, to the team in the fall of 1975, World Tennis Team named Walker its Executive of the Year.
Celebrity Fight Night is not Walker’s first charity endeavor, nor is it his first sports-related charity. In 1982, his family began one of Walker’s favorite charities, Bicycles for Kids, an organization that has blessed approximately 6,000 inner-city children with bicycles over the past twenty-five years. And serving on boards of various local facilities and organizations such as the Barrow Neurological Foundation and the Phoenix Boys and Girls Club has further placed him in the position to receive several honorable awards, including the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Man of the Year honor in 1995 and the 2005 Golden Karma Award for Outstanding Community Philanthropy in Metropolitan Phoenix.
On April 5, Jimmy Walker will brush elbows with some of the most successful people in music, film, business, sports, and government—Celine Dion, Robin Williams, Donald Trump, Josh Groban, and Tony Hawk, to name a few—but Walker himself is a celebrity to the people whose lives have been touched by his charities. And, with his wife, Nancy, three children, and seven grandchildren, the man of magnanimity has the best reward life can grant him.
Celebrity Fight Night will be held Saturday, April 5 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. For reservations, call (602) 956-1121, or visit celebrityfightnight.org for more information.