Alice Harper Stokes

1915 - 2009

Alice Harper Stokes passed away on March 19, 2009. She was 93. She was born October 25, 1915 in Red Cedar (now Durand), Pepin County, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of Hugh Allen Harper and Florence Gertrude Burr and was the second of six children. Her family moved to Cornerstone Farm, Lancaster, Wisconsin when Alice was two years old, and she spent her growing up years there. Alice attended North School and South School and then graduated with honors from Lancaster High School in 1933.
Alice was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. After working in the Secretary of the Faculty's Office at the University, Alice became secretary to Professor Aldo Leopold in the Department of Wildlife Management. Here she met Allen, who came to study under Aldo Leopold. Allen and Alice were married on June 23, 1945 in the First Congregational Church of Madison, Wisconsin.
Allen worked in Baltimore, Maryland on a Johns Hopkins University rat research project and then moved back to Madison. Allen Jr. was born on July 23, 1947. They moved to Pelee Island in Lake Erie for three years for Allen to work on a ring-necked pheasant study for his Ph.D. during which time their daughter Susan was born on January 9, 1949 in Leamington, Ontario.
After Allen received his Ph.D. in Wildlife Management at the University of Wisconsin in June of 1952, his family moved to Logan, Utah where Allen became Professor of Wildlife at Utah State Agricultural College and went on to teach for 24 years.
Alice later earned her Master of Science degree from the Department of Communicative Disorders, Utah State University. Alice taught deaf children in Logan schools. Her first job in the Logan schools was combined with teaching two days a week at the Utah School for the Deaf in Ogden. Alice along with other parents of deaf children and with the help of the University and Edith Bowen School started classes in Logan for deaf children so they could remain at home rather than traveling to distant schools.
Alice was a mother to Allen Jr. and Susan and also to two nieces Jules and Jane Harper. She was proud of their accomplishments. She liked camping, hiking, skiing, birding, and canoeing with Allen and her family. She enjoyed traveling with Allen and her family to Europe, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, the Caribbean, and the sabbatical year that they lived in Cambridge, England. She liked traveling with Allen when he was on the board of the National Audubon Society, going on field trips with Bridgerland Audubon Society, painting with the Watercolor Society, and playing violin with the Cache Chamber Orchestra for 22 years. In her early years in Logan, she was active in the Women's Faculty League, American Association of University Women, Forestry Wives, Cosmopolitan Club for international students, the American Field Service, and was a Cub Scouts den mother.
She appreciated time with Allen during the 17 summers he taught at the Teton Science School and later being asked to serve emeritus on the board. Alice felt honored when the Allen and Alice Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon was named after Allen and her. Alice was proud to receive the Women Over 65 Achievement Award in 1989 from the U.S.U. Women's Center.
Alice was baptized and grew up Methodist, then Congregational when she was living with her grandparents during her college years, and then became a Quaker with the Religious Society of Friends in Logan.
Alice was always proud of and glad of having grown up on a farm, a farm started by her great grandfather Hugh Alexander Moore in 1846 and added to by her father who loved farming and being in the Wisconsin State Legislature. Alice loved showing calves at the Grant County fairs, playing her violin in the high school orchestra, walking, riding horseback, or on cold days being taken in the sleigh with jingle bells the mile and a half to school, and 4-H work. She was especially appreciative of having a loving mother and father and good family life with brothers and sisters growing up.
Alice treasured 51 years of marriage to Allen until his death July 28, 1996 and knowing Allen's two wonderful parents and his four siblings. She felt she had a perfect life with a loving, special husband and family and so many caring friends.
She is survived by her son Allen W. (Brenda) Stokes, Jr. of Denver, Colorado and daughter Susan Stokes of Logan, six grandchildren, and four great grandchildren, her sister Jean (Bob) Nauman of Lake Oswego, Oregon and her brother William Harper of Lancaster, Wisconsin. Remembrance contributions may be made to the Allen and Alice Stokes Nature Center, P.O. Box 4204, Logan, UT 84323; Bridgerland Audubon Society, P.O. Box 3501, Logan, UT 84323-3501; Allen and Alice H. Stokes Scholarship Fund, Wildlife Department, Utah State University, 5200 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-5200; Allen and Alice Stokes Scholarship Fund, Women’s Center, Utah State University, 0185 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322; or Deaf Education, Bilingual/Bicultural, Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, Utah State University, 1000 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322. There will be a memorial service at the Sunburst Lounge at the Taggart Student Center, Utah State University, on Saturday, May 9, at 3 p.m. A reception will immediately follow at the College of Natural Resources, USU.