CEET business manager pens autobiography

by Joe King

Ralph Wallis, business manager in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, doesn’t have any illusions of making the New York Times Best Seller list, but he is proud to call himself a published author.

Wallis, 59, who has worked at NIU for the past 27 years, recently published his autobiography, “Memoirs of a Rambling Mind,” through Infinity Publishing, a vanity press. He wrote and published the book as a gift to his five children, ages 25 to 30.

He began the project just before last Christmas, presenting his children with a few pages and promising to write more. Seven months and 200 pages later, the book was complete.

“I’m no war hero, or anything like that. I didn’t think I could write six pages, but it just started to flow,” he says.

The book traces Wallis’ life from a boy in Sandwich, Ill., through his service in Viet Nam and through his days as a student and employee at NIU. While Wallis himself doesn’t consider his life’s journey to be extraordinary, those family and friends he has shared it with have enjoyed the tale.

“I encourage everybody to do this for friends, family whatever,” Wallis said. “I think everybody has a great story in them if they just look for it.”

11-1-04