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While countless families have established strong educational connections with ��Ӱֱ�� State College (ASC), the bond between Larry Allen, '65, and his mother, Dorothy Allen Bailey, '69, to each other and the college is particularly strong. This enduring connection will benefit nursing students for years to come.

Larry, who grew up in Dansville, NY, had a strong desire to work in the engineering field and become a mechanical engineer. Living down the road from ��Ӱֱ�� State, he was fortunate to receive a rotary scholarship and the opportunity to be a residence assistant, which made a significant difference in his ability to afford college.

Larry fondly recalls Professor Sylvester who was influential in his learning at ASC. “He was good at really putting your mind in a place where you were going to be working. He would describe what you were going to run into every day and what (future employers) were going to expect of you.”

“The training at ��Ӱֱ�� State helped me to adapt to anything. I was the problem solver and could do anything hands-on in the field that was not done in the architect's office. I have used everything that I learned at ��Ӱֱ�� State during my career except for calculus.”

Outside the classroom, Larry was instrumental in organizing and leading activities for those in his dorms who were independent, and students who were not part of a fraternity or a sorority. “I am a social guy, so we set up different activities, little competitions between dorms. We had soccer games, played pool, and even helped when the sheep got loose from the farm.”

Larry and his best friend, Mark Wamp, '65, were well-known during their time on campus. The pair were unbeatable pinochle players whom professors and deans challenged throughout their time at the college. That connection to the faculty and staff would pay off later for the Allen family.

After graduating, Larry began his career at S.J. Groves as an engineer and foreman. He worked on infrastructure projects around Niagara Falls and was part of building the I390 Expressway.

A few years after Larry graduated, his mother asked the family to come home to discuss an important situation. Dorothy, who raised and supported eight children, held multiple jobs at a time including serving as a staff attendant at the Craig Colony for Epileptics in Sonyea, called her family around the table to discuss the opportunity to advance in the healthcare industry. At the time, the State of New York had a program that helped individuals become nurses. Dorothy asked Larry to go with her to register for nursing classes at ��Ӱֱ�� State.

“My mom was the strongest, most loving woman in our lives. She was the person we would go to when life's questions became too hard. She always gave us encouragement to keep doing our best.”

Larry took his mom to register for classes, but they hit a speed bump when they first met with an admissions counselor. “We cut the line and went into the admissions office and met with a guy. He asked for my mother's high school transcript. Unfortunately, my mother did not have that information anymore because all those records were kept in the courthouse and that burned down in 1939. The admissions counselor said there was a waiting list and that the program was very desirable and without proof of taking chemistry he could not see admitting her into the program.”

After leaving the admissions office, Larry was not willing to give up. He decided to seek help from Dean Vince Trotta, a person he had worked closely with in organizing events while he was a residence assistant in the dorm.

“Dean Trotta told us he did not have anything to do with admissions, but he made a call to try to help.”

A phone call to someone who remembered Larry from his time at ��Ӱֱ�� State led to a solution. Dorothy needed to take chemistry in summer school, score in the top 10% on the college entrance exam and find proof of her high school graduation.

“She accomplished all those requirements and was admitted to ��Ӱֱ�� in 1967. She was 45 years old when she started nursing school. She showed us that we could do anything with determination. Books were all over the kitchen table. I believe she made the dean's list every semester except for one.”

Dorothy continued to work her work at Sonyea after earning her degree. She earned a promotion to an administrator role and stayed in the healthcare field after retirement as a volunteer for twenty-five years with Livingston County Hospice.

Dorothy's best friend and colleague, Virginia Shefflin, attended ��Ӱֱ�� State with her and the two mothers who raised their families alone graduated and worked together until they retired. “They lived about two miles apart. They studied together and did it all together.”

Larry's career path changed after his mother graduated from ��Ӱֱ�� State and became a nurse. Construction jobs dried up in New York in 1973 and he decided to take a chance in Colorado to work with the carpenter union. After a wild adventure, he arrived in Colorado only to find there were no jobs as he had been told.

At the point of giving up and driving back to New York, the union steward walked in and when he found out Larry was able read and draw plans, he sent them to Vail to work on an elementary school project that was far behind and was over budget.

After turning the project around and saving the company thousands of dollars, he found an opportunity to work at Vail Mountain running their construction and maintenance. He took that job and ran with it.

“I oversaw construction of Vail Ski Mountain when it was very young. It was the hardest job I ever loved. I was there for eight years before we bought a glass and mirror company that we ran for twenty years. Vail was the best place in the world to bring up a family.”

Last summer, Larry returned to the area for a reunion and a celebration of life for his late wife, Gail. His sister, Carol (Preston), joined him for a campus tour, which included stops in the engineering building and demonstrations of the equipment in the nursing labs.

Jody Blankenship, the current nursing department chair, showed them the simulation labs, and the simulation manikins, and even found the nursing class picture from 1969 that featured their mother and her best friend.

The visit stirred not only strong emotions of the bond that Larry had with his mother but also the connection they both share with ��Ӱֱ�� State. Those emotions and a passion to help future generations of students pursuing a career in nursing led Larry to establish the Dorothy Allen Bailey, '69 Memorial Scholarship.

“My wife Gail and I have succeeded very well and the opportunity to start a scholarship in my mother's honor was something I did not know was available. My mom was a woman with no quit in her system and her work ethic was clear. She made sure her children followed her footsteps to be self-reliant, with strong family ties, and a no-nonsense respect for right and wrong.”

“The college was so important to our family. My mother was able to go through the program and succeed in life. She was never able to be the best that she could be until she went to ��Ӱֱ��. She always wanted to be a nurse.”

Larry and his family hope that the endowed scholarship will enable students to achieve similar goals and make a positive impact on their lives, just as ��Ӱֱ�� State has done for both him and his mother.