Arthur Walden Welch

Arthur Walden Welch, a Sonoma-based astrologer for more than four decades, died May 13 after years of suffering from congestive heart failure. He was 67.

Named after Walden Pond, Welch was born at 10:13 p.m. Dec. 30, 1943, "with his Sun in Capricorn, Virgo Rising and Moon in Pisces." His psychic abilities, he later claimed, soon became apparent.

By seventh grade, he was known as the "Oracle." While still a teenager, he began a psychic practice in San Francisco. And at the age of 20, Walden became the youngest licensed certified psychic medium in the United States, he wrote in his online biography.

In 1963, he met his lifelong partner, Patrick Curry, and together they started an antique business, "Curry and I Antiques." on Divisidero Street.

Five years later, the pair relocated to Sonoma with Curry continuing the antique business while Welch conducted readings in the back office.

Sharon Matzinger, a longtime friend, first met Welch two decades ago after co-workers bought her a session with him. He immediately floored her with questions that seemed as if he knew about her brushes with death in the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 and from a brain tumor in 1986.

Wally, as she called him, also predicted that the single mom would meet her Prince Charming in three years.

"I met Jim almost exactly three years later and he was everything that Wally said," she recalled.

In June 2008, Welch's bond with Curry got a legal blessing. After California briefly allowed same-sex marriage, Curry proposed, giving Welch five minutes to decide.

The pair then drove to the county clerk's office, registered their marriage and celebrated with a frosty, Matzinger said. Curry died last year of emphysema.

In earlier decades, Welch cultivated a public persona, appearing on radio and television shows, including "The Merv Griffin Show," and his own local radio programs.

In later years, he kept a lower profile though he continued to see clients during his illness, including celebrities, politicians and people who came from miles away, Metzinger said.

"He was so kind and so wonderful and so warm and so understanding," she said. "He had a human contact with everyone the moment he met them."

Walden is survived by his half-sister Marilyn Casteel, her family, numerous cousins and long-term friends he considered family.

Services are private. A memorial website has been established at www.waldenwelchastrologer.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Association for Research and Enlightenment, 215 67th St. Virginia Beach, Va. 23451, or to Pet's Lifeline, 19686 Eighth St. East, Sonoma 95476.

--Sam Scott