It wasn’t so long ago when owners Giles Healy and Jim Vacura used to arrive at Ramsey Golf Course after their shifts at Hormel and go their separate ways.

Thursday, April 06, 2000

It wasn’t so long ago when owners Giles Healy and Jim Vacura used to arrive at Ramsey Golf Course after their shifts at Hormel and go their separate ways.

Healy would take care of the business end of things, while Vacura would tend to the golf course.

"Jim would come in and head out onto the course," recalled Roger Larson, Ramsey’s club manager for the past 32 years. "Giles would head into the office. That went on for many, many years."

In 1997, Healy and Vacura, friends to each other and all those associated with Ramsey, celebrated the 50-year anniversary of their business partnership.

Now, just three years later, both of the men are gone. Vacura passed away on May 29, 1999. Little more than 10 months later, on Sunday, Healy, 85, joined him in death, leaving the partnership that owned and operated Austin’s prominent public golf course to memory.

"It was a nice relationship," Larson said. "They confided in one another.

"They were easy people to work for. They let you do what you thought was best."

To know Healy or Vacura was to have a good relationship with them, said Larson.

With Ramsey’s long-time owners gone, Larson was quick to point out that their legacy will live on.

Though there are legal issues surrounding the golf course, "the golf course will go on," Larson said. "There will be new ownership, there’s no question about that.

"But all of the workers will continue with us and hopefully things will be as good as ever."

Clearly, Healy, a World War II veteran and active member of the American Legion, would want the course to soldier on, said Larson:

"Giles and Jim put their whole lives into this place. "