H. Dayle Balliett

Class of 1939: Military, sports, education

(Howard) Dayle Balliett was a military officer, athlete, diplomat, musician and educator.

He was born Aug. 14, 1918, in Augusta, Wisconsin, and worked his way through Ripon College as a pianist for churches and on the radio station. He majored in history, English and Spanish and was commissioned through ROTC.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, he was there, commanding Rifle Company I in the Army’s 3rd Battalion of the 21st Infantry, guarding Wheeler Field against sabotage.

Balliett went on to a long career in diplomatic postings and trainings, as a professor of military science, in the Office of Legislative Liaison to coordinate the Army’s affairs with Congress, and to the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Versailles, France.

Everywhere he went, he was active in sports. At Ripon, Balliett played freshman football and three years of varsity, freshman basketball and three years of varsity and was caption of the first Ripon basketball team that won a Midwest championship.

“I love the College, and I had success in athletics there,” he said. “For one thing, it helped me through college. Secondly, it made me some lifelong friends in teammates. And it also is awfully good for raising morale among the students who support the teams.

“The lessons I learned from the coaches when I was playing competitive sports at Ripon have been valuable to me as a person all my life, both as an Army officer and university officer.”

After graduation, he continued playing in basketball and football in the Army, participated in tennis and handball throughout his life and coached basketball and tennis at Wofford College, a liberal arts college, in South Carolina, where he was a professor of military science.

He also received a master’s degree in international relations from George Washington University.

He ended his 30-year military career in 1969 with the rank of colonel. He then worked as the assistant chancellor of administration at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for 13 years and served on the Ripon College Board of Trustees before retiring to Florida in 1982.

He died Oct. 19, 2014, at the age of 96.