Wesley Allen

Wes Allen, a 1942 alumnus of NDSCS and a former electronics instructor and department chair, has been named by the Awards Committee to receive the coveted Alumnus of the Year Award. This special award was first awarded in 1958 to A. J. “Andy” Hausauer. In 1964 Wes Allen’s father, D.B. Allen, was the recipient of the award.

In spite of being interrupted by a tour of duty in World War II in the European Theater, Wesley Allen returned to his alma mater to teach for more than 39 years in the Electronics Department. Allen retired in 1985 after 39 plus years as an instructor.

“Our legacy at the North Dakota State College of Science began in 1908-10, when my father, D.B. Allen attended the college, only five years after the school opened,” Allen said.

Allen was born at Walcott on Nov. 29, 1922, and attended both elementary and high school there. He was active in basketball and track in high school and sang in the high school boys’ trio. That same fall he entered NDSCS (NDSSS at that time) and graduated with an associate degree in Radio/Refrigeration in 1942. He was the third member of his family to follow in his father’s footsteps.

D.B. Allen was a staunch supporter of the college throughout his life. His sister, Lauretta, and his brother, Curtis, preceded him. Curtis was also in the electrical program, which at that time included welding instruction. Shortly after graduation, while working in Dickinson, Curtis was killed when a tank being welded in the area in which he was working, exploded. He was 21 years old.

After graduation from NDSCS, Allen accepted a U.S. Signal Corps job in Omaha, Neb. “I had to hitchhike to Omaha to accept the job,” he said. That fall he was asked to return to Wahpeton to take a position as an instructor at the college. The college had contracted with the U.S. Government to teach Army Signal Corps recruits. His first challenge was to set up the program to teach army recruits in preparation for service in the Army Signal Corps.

“We had a heavy student load and ran three sections, 24 hours a day,” he pointed out. When the Navy program came to the campus, the Signal Corps was moved off campus to a downtown location in quarters above the Corner Drug Store. When the Navy left the campus, the program returned to campus. He continued with this program until May 1943 when he entered the service and was assigned to the Air Force. He was then tested and placed in the Army Specialized Training program (ASTP) and was sent to a college in Iowa.

Allen was sent overseas with the 303rd Signal Operation Battalion in 1944 where he participated in three major campaigns, the Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe, advancing in grade to Technician 3rd grade (Staff Sgt.). He was discharged Jan. 1, 1946.

Returning from the service in 1946,Wes was immediately recruited to teach at the college again, his contract beginning the same day he was discharged. He taught in the Electronics Department where Bjorn Melsted was the department chair.

Following World War II, NDSCS was the premiere trade and technical school in the country, and the influx of returning veterans swelled the enrollment rapidly. “We had about 200 students in our department with 13 staff members,” he said. “The college operated on the quarter system at that time, and this was a big advantage to the rural students,” he pointed out.

In 1948 Wesley was married to Eleanor Myhre of Walcott, who was an elementary teacher. They have two daughters, Barbara Allen Hartman, a high school English teacher in Sauk Centre, Minn., and Janet Allen Davis, a special education teacher in Kalispell, Mont. Both daughters attended NDSCS. His three sisters, Lauretta, an NDSCS graduate, Shirley and Donna were also teachers. His wife passed away May 3, 2002.

“My late wife, Eleanor, was my total life and inspiration, and any success I have attained, I must credit to her for her love and support for those 53 years we shared as our children were growing up and the challenges we faced along the way,” he wrote.

In 1971 Wes earned his bachelor of science degree in education from the University of South Dakota, Springfield. He continued to teach full-time in the Electronics Department until he became department chair, a position he held for 25 years. He served one term on the Faculty Senate, was president of the North Dakota Technical Teachers Association (NDTTA) in 1970 and was president of the North Dakota Vocational Association (NDVA) in 1971. He was a member of the American Vocational Association (AVA) and the American Technical Education Association (ATEA).

During his years at the college, Allen was active in community activities as well. He served for six years on the Board of Deacons at Bethel Lutheran Church and has been a member of the Walcott American Legion Post 166 for 57 years. His personal hobbies include fishing and hunting and spending time at his lake cottage on West McDonald Lake in Minnesota in the summers. Since retirement, he has become involved in woodworking activities and has created numerous artistic wood pieces on display in his home and at the lake, as well as giving many to friends. In winters the Allens spent time in Arizona, in recent years at Lake Havasu.

In reflecting on his years at the college, Allen looks with great satisfaction on his career. “We were blessed with large numbers of students eager to learn and many entered the work force and moved up rapidly in their chosen field. It is always a pleasure for an instructor to have students return and tell stories of success and speak with pride about their alma mater. I was privileged to work with excellent fellow instructors and we all worked hard to help our students prepare for the real world,” he said.

“We were all excited and pleased when we were moved into the new Barnard Hall facility. This gave us much needed lab space and made our classrooms much better,” Allen said.

“When I began teaching, I adopted a philosophy based on the following poem:

“You’ve each been given a bag of tools,

A formless rock and a book of rules.

And you each must make, ere life has flown,

A stumbling block or a stepping stone.”

“Each day in the classroom, I was determined not to be a stumbling block, but a stepping stone,” Allen concluded.