Louis Albert Wallis Jr.

Louis (Lou) A. Wallis Aged 86 years, died in Monroe, CT on Thursday, 27 October 2016. Louis was born in Elizabethtown, KY, 8 May 1930 to Louis and Lucille LaVerne Wallis. Louis Sr., was a truck driver and seed store manager. He is predeceased by his parents and a younger sister named Joy. Louis married Frances Ann Berry in Elizabethtown, KY, 27 December 1952. Life proved how fortunate he was in having such a fine woman as his wife. Louis enlisted in the US Army in 1948 and served until 1949. One year service was possible in those days. He made a friend from Utah who interested him in attending the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, and he graduated in 1953. Louis enrolled in ROTC at Salt Lake City and received a commission from the President as 2nd Lt. in the USAF in 1954, and was honorably discharged from the reserves in 1963 as a 1st Lt. Louis worked a year after graduation in the university book store to save money for a car to drive all the way to Indiana, to attend business school at Indiana University. He hitched a trailer to the Plymouth sedan and drove out in the summer of 1954. Mother had fun watching birds along the route, in the days before interstate highways. Louis was awarded an MBA in 1955 and by 1956 was a trainee at General Electric. Intersting to note that while Louis was in his business administration studies, mother paid their bills by working at an insurance office in Bloomington, IN. Louis worked for GE in the 1960s, especially in the old Bridgeport, CT, complex. He and mother bought a house in Monroe, CT, in 1964, where they spent the rest of their lives. Louis also worked for Berol Corp., in Danbury, CT, in the 1970s. Beginning in the 1980s Louis worked for The Conference Board, New York City, as Director of Conference Programming. He retired in 1998. Louis lived life to the fullest, with many strong interests to occupy his leisure time. He enjoyed playing his beloved Steinway piano, and building a large collection of CDs and LPs devoted to classical music. As part of this, he invested in some high-end audio equipment, also a life-long interest. As side-note, he worked in the receiver tube department at GE fresh out of MBA school, so he knew a few things about vintage tube radios. In his retirement, Louis could be seen wheeling about town on his Italian Vespa scooter, well into his 80s. He put 12,000 miles on it. He was very inquisitive about life and the human condition, and read history, philosophy, physics, medicine, and religion. He remained current with all the latest technology. After his wife died Louis occupied his time on an iPad, Macbook, iPhone, and Kindle. The last day of his life he ordered a book on the science of creativity. Louis is survived by his two sons, Frank, born 1957, and Neil, born 1961. Louis was interred at the CT Veteran's Cemetery, Middletown, CT, alongside Frances Ann. As he said shortly before he died, he didn't do too bad for a country boy.