Alan went to Vermont Tech, or known as VATI (Vermont Agriculture and Technical Institute) at the time to pursue an education in the Agriculture program and graduated in 1962. He recalled working on the farm and shared a memory of him and classmates having a BBQ using the chickens from the farm.
Now, Vermont Tech is revamping the Agriculture program and you can find more about the changes under the Center for Food and Agriculture Entrepreneurship on our website. Alan mentioned that he was sad the cows on the farm were sold, but understands the need for change and restructure. That’s why Alan donates, since 1996, to the George F. Wellman Memorial Scholarship because “I am proud of my time at VTC and remember George Wellman, as he was a great guy. That’s why I want to support the agriculture program.”
During his time at Vermont Tech, Alan was working as a Veterinary Assistant and became trained as one during the summer before graduation. He noted, “trained veterinary assistants had not been heard of at that time and I stayed with this job until May of 1963.” Seeing that the Vietnam war was ramping up, Alan decided to enter into the Navy and was trained as an Electronic Technician. With this, Alan’s course took a change and after the Navy, and he joined IBM in Richmond, Virginia and noted that he also went to IBM school in Dallas. A couple of a jobs after IBM, Alan retired in 2018 after 29 years as a Field Engineer from a company in Houston. Alan stated, “As much as I would have liked to stay in the Agriculture field, circumstances dictated otherwise.” Now Alan is enjoying his retirement in Virginia.
During Vermont Tech’s scare of being closed, in 2019, Alan took his time to call and write letters to the state and local officials in support of Vermont Tech and as Richard Cook, AG 1962, exclaimed, “It is people like Alan why we have VTC today!”