Skip Wallen

R.T. Wallen (“Skip” to my friends and family)
I was honored to be invited to join the Coachmen fifty-seven years after the founding of the club! I didn’t have a car in high school but got to ride around a lot in an official Coachmen vehicle, Warrensy’s 1950 Chevy. In college at UW Madison, I bought a 1941 Chevy pick-up ($150), patched it up, and after graduating with a degree in zoology, made my way to Alaska over the tire-eating, vehicle-consuming Alcan Highway. I took a job as a field research biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. My work with walruses, moose, sea otters, grizzlies and other species took me all over Alaska, from Ketchikan to the Arctic. Five years and many adventures later found me sequestered at department headquarters in Juneau as the staff artist. A short time later, I gave up my state job and opened a hole-in-the-wall art gallery in Juneau where I specialized in stone lithography. In 1982 I married Dr. Lynn Price, an anthropologist, in Sicily where her sister was living at the time. In 1987 we adopted our son, Tor, age six, in Bangkok, Thailand. Back home in Alaska, Lynn persuaded me to take up sculpture, and that has led to wonderful and far-flung experiences for us. The current project (2015) has brought me full circle, back to Manitowoc to create a large sculpture group for the Lake Michigan shoreline (www.SpiritoftheRivers.org). We are living in the house my great grandparents built, the house where my mother was born and where I grew up. Re-uniting with old friends has made the homecoming even more special.
I was honored to be invited to join the Coachmen fifty-seven years after the founding of the club! I didn’t have a car in high school but got to ride around a lot in an official Coachmen vehicle, Warrensy’s 1950 Chevy. In college at UW Madison, I bought a 1941 Chevy pick-up ($150), patched it up, and after graduating with a degree in zoology, made my way to Alaska over the tire-eating, vehicle-consuming Alcan Highway. I took a job as a field research biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. My work with walruses, moose, sea otters, grizzlies and other species took me all over Alaska, from Ketchikan to the Arctic. Five years and many adventures later found me sequestered at department headquarters in Juneau as the staff artist. A short time later, I gave up my state job and opened a hole-in-the-wall art gallery in Juneau where I specialized in stone lithography. In 1982 I married Dr. Lynn Price, an anthropologist, in Sicily where her sister was living at the time. In 1987 we adopted our son, Tor, age six, in Bangkok, Thailand. Back home in Alaska, Lynn persuaded me to take up sculpture, and that has led to wonderful and far-flung experiences for us. The current project (2015) has brought me full circle, back to Manitowoc to create a large sculpture group for the Lake Michigan shoreline (www.SpiritoftheRivers.org). We are living in the house my great grandparents built, the house where my mother was born and where I grew up. Re-uniting with old friends has made the homecoming even more special.