Virginia Metcalf’s Great Heart is Good Oak

By the Good Oak Editor

“Next Monday, personnel at Walter Reed will come to work as usual. Reveille will beheld, and duty personnel will report to their wards or offices just like always. Patients will be admitted and released. Doctors will make their rounds. Coffee breaks will be held. And, on the surface, everything will seem perfectly normal, but, except a few, no one will remember that the Center will be losing one of the finest woman athletes ever to perform for Walter Reed teams.”  Service Stripe, December 14, 1956.

Meet Virginia “Ginny” Metcalf, a long-time friend and supporter of the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Metcalf has from adolescence through retirement demonstrated a rare combination of physical prowess, intellectual acuity, and love for all, bundled in service to people and the land.

As the passage above makes clear, Ginny is an athlete of rare accomplishment, starring in multiple sports in high school, college, during her military career, and after. Softball, basketball, bowling, volleyball, golf, it’s never seemed to matter which sport, she’s wowed teammates and spectators alike for decades. Her career as a physical therapist reached even greater heights—all the way to serving in the office of the U.S. Surgeon General!

It’s no wonder this physically gifted Louisiana native chose to study and excel in the growing field of physical therapy (PT). Following graduation from Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, 7 months of intense didactic training at the U.S. Army Medical Field Service School in Houston, and five months gaining clinical experience in various hospitals, Metcalf began her career in 1954 at Walter Reed General Hospital as Physical Therapist in the then “Women’s” Medical Specialists Corp of the US Army during the Korean war. This was an intense time due to a heavy flow of war injuries and the ongoing polio epidemic; Metcalf and her PT colleagues treated service members and also their family members.

Ginny’s Army physical therapy career and her ongoing education eventually spanned various conflicts and multiple medical facilities across the Northern Hemisphere and Europe. From Tripler General Hospital in Hawaii in 1957, to FT Still, Oklahoma, back to Walter Reed during the Korean War, to graduate school at the University of Southern California for a Master of Science degree. From there, Ginny was assigned to Brooke General Hospital, San Antonio, where she treated soldiers injured in the Vietnam conflict. Ina 1967 career assignment, Metcalf worked and learned at the 2nd General Hospital at Landstuhl, West Germany, where she was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

Upon her return to the USA, Ginny served as Chief of PT at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco where her team treated many casualties and prisoners of war.  

In 1979 Metcalf was named Chief of the Physical Section of the Army Medical Specialist Corps in the Office of the Army Surgeon General at the Pentagon and “dual-hatted” as Chief, PT Section at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Metcalf held those positions until her retirement in 1983 after 30 years of active duty.

Abundant career travel revealed to Ginny many different domestic and foreign landscapes and conditions, which fascinated her and taught her to love the land. Ginny came fully to her second calling—a deeply held land ethic—after she retired, when an Army nurse friend gave her a copy of Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. She was inspired and began to see the natural world in terms of love, community, and responsibility. A more recent reading of Leopold’s masterwork led her toward involvement in eco-spirituality and a deeper connection to the earth.

“When we read Leopold, we start to see the connection that land is more than just something to use. We really are a part of the vast ecosystem. I want to ensure that this connection endures through a growing land ethic. That’s why I encourage you to include the Leopold Foundation in your estate planning and be recognized now in the Good Oak Society,” said Metcalf.

Having relocated to Christmas Mountain, Wisconsin (near the Shack and a fine golf course or two), Metcalf was soon involved in nearby land conservation issues. She became active in the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance, a regional group working to ethically repurpose, reclaim, and restore about 7,000-acres previously occupied by the Badger Army Ammunition Plant.

Ever an art lover, Metcalf and Mary Yeakel co-commissioned Siberian-born artist Victor Bakhtin (a well-known wildlife artist in residence at Sauk County’s International Crane Foundation campus) to create “Sauk Prairie Remembered: A Vision for the Future,” a 7 x 5-foot masterpiece visually recreating what the land was like 200 years ago. The painting was used to raise awareness and funds for the restoration work on the decommissioned plant’s grounds and is now displayed in the Sauk County Courthouse in Baraboo, WI.

Ginny has been an active and generous supporter of the Aldo Leopold Foundation since the beginning in 1982. She provided the foundation its first minivan during the time before construction of the Leopold Legacy Center. Ginny cherished a friendship with Leopold’s daughter Nina, who had returned to Baraboo to continue the Phenology work begun by the family in the 1930s and 40s.

The work of the Leopold Foundation has for long inspired this Good Oak Society member. “I am so proud of the growth of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, so proud to support the work they do. I love the expansion of the Future Leaders Program. I am thrilled the Foundation will carry on the connection of science, art, and land that Aldo taught and practiced. The Foundation is now nationwide and beyond, planting this powerful land ethic around the world.”

Ginny is a strong advocate for legacy-giving to organizations that connect people to the land and to planet Earth.

“I continue to be passionate about the land ethic and the role of the human species as we awaken to our participation in the ongoing journey of the Earth,” Ginny said. “My hope is that ALF will continue to have strong advocates and supporters who have a deep sense of connection with the land which brings such a rewarding sense of awe and wonder.”

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