Allan Stratford Humpherys was born April 4, 1926, in Idaho Falls, ID to Harold Joseph and Vera Stratford Humpherys. He was the oldest of 6 children. He spent his childhood and youth in Star Valley, WY living in Thayne and Etna before moving to the family homestead northeast of Thayne.
Life in Star Valley on the family farm was physically demanding and difficult by today’s standards. The family was poor and survival was the highest priority. Dad relates that they often ate bread and milk for supper because there wasn’t anything else for dinner. I loved to listen to his stories of life as a child. He talked about keeping their food cold in the creek behind the house, brushing the frost off the seat in the outhouse, hauling milk to the creamery with his Uncle Ray, hunting for chicken eggs around the barnyard, milking cows, riding a horse drawn sleigh to town and back for mutual, staying home from school to help his mother with the wash, and helping with the haying. It wasn’t until he was in high school that the family had electricity at their home. He saw some incredible changes in his life. As a child he was amazed with the radio and telephone and then lived to see man go to the moon and the revolutionary changes brought by computer technology.
In high school the school bus would not take the students home until after the basketball games and there was always a dance after the games. Dad was too scared to ask girls to dance and thought the dances were a bore. This is ironic because he later developed a passion for dancing.
Navy Service
He served in the US Navy during World War II in the Pacific theater from 1945 to 1946 on the USS Cybele, a supply ship that sailed between China, Japan, and Korea.
One night he was on watch at the bow of the ship during a big storm. The front of the ship heaved up and down as the waves passed by. Dad got very sick, leaned over the edge, and lost his breakfast. He quickly gained his sea legs and didn’t have many other problems with sea sickness.
One of Dad’s primary assignments was as a storekeeper. During this time he became friends with another man who maintained the stores of ice cream on the ship. We all know of Dad’s fondness for ice cream. He says that he and his friend ate plenty of it and Dad reached the heaviest weight of his life, 154 pounds!
While on duty, Dad was in charge of equipment maintenance. After he left many fell into disrepair. He also went to Nagasaki one day and saw the destruction of the atom bomb dropped on the city. After his service, he hitch-hiked home to Star Valley, which was common at the time for sailors and soldiers coming home from the war.
Mission
Dad was called by George Albert Smith to the California North Mission in 1948. After entering the mission home in Salt Lake City he was set apart by Elder Harold B. Lee of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He also received his patriarchal blessing in the mission home. Dad served in northern California and southern Oregon from 1948 to 1950.
Dad always said he knocked on a lot of doors and baptisms were few and far between. However, he was laying the foundation for a great work and now the areas where he served have strong wards and stakes.
In his journals he tells of hitchhiking to church with a Lutheran minister.
One of the things he and the other missionaries did was give speeches on the radio. The day after he gave one, he and his companion were out tracting and met a man. They asked the man if he had heard the broadcast the night before and the man said, “Yes, but he (referring to the speaker on the radio) wasn’t much of a preacher!” Dad said he, “just about laughed and agreed with him.”
College and Courtship
Dad attended Utah State University, receiving his BS in Agricultural Engineering in1955. The following year he and Adele Ralph of Ogden UT were married in the Logan Temple. Then in 1957 he completed his BS in Civil Engineering while Adele graduated with a bachelor’s degree in home economics.
They began their married life in Logan, and eventually settled in the Twin Falls, ID area in 1964. They built a family home in Kimberly, ID in 1966, where he lived until his death. The home in Kimberly is where all of his children grew to maturity. Allan and Adele had nine children: Shirley, Diane, Richard, Cheryl, Loralee, Dwight, Bryce, Carolee, and Shauna.
Career
Dad worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture where his work came to focus on creating mechanisms to automate irrigation systems. He was the author/co-author of more than 50 peer reviewed technical papers on irrigation and sprinkler systems and contributed to numerous college engineering textbooks. Dad helped create the current design of the Rainbird sprinkler and held patents on various irrigation methods, tools, and instruments.
Dad was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineering for his entire profession and a member of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) since at least 1968. His membership in ICID offered him multiple opportunities for travel around the world.
In 1986 Dad received the distinguished alumni from the USU irrigation engineering dept.
Travel
Dad visited most states of the country and it is easier to list those states he did not visit. They are Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Dad also traveled around the world, visiting all of the continents except Antarctica. Specifically, he visited Mexico, Greece, Israel, Hungary, Morocco, Chile, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy?, England, Germany, Austria, Turkey?, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt?, Argentina, Peru?, Brazil, Tahiti, Canada, China, Japan, Guatemala, Panama?, Singapore, Philippines, Korea,
As children, we loved it when he would return and bring us each some knick knack as a souvenir from the countries just visited. On some of the trips he took Mom with him. When this happened, they sometimes made some interesting housing arrangements for the children at home. My favorite was when they went to South America and left Dwight and I home alone for two weeks. We were both in high school.
Hobbies and Interests
Flowers and Gardening
Dad enjoyed gardening. He always had a large vegetable garden, fruit trees and multiple flower beds around the house. He always took great satisfaction in planting, pulling weeds, and caring for his garden.
Outdoors
In his life story Dad described with fondness the camping trips and picnics of his youth in the forest. He describes part of one family campout when he was a child as follows: “I enjoyed watching the stars, listening to the night birds flying and the babble of the nearby river – I enjoyed the outdoors.” Dad shared his love of the outdoors with his children through numerous hiking, fishing, camping, and hunting trips. He was an aggressive motorcycle and ATV driver and loved to roll rocks off mountain peaks. Just this spring he went on a hike in the Hole-in-the-Rock area of Southern Utah. All of us children have inherited this love of the outdoors.
Mechanical Things
When Dad was a child his father had a garage for auto repairs. Dad was intrigued by the mechanical equipment. This was a strong interest of his for the rest of his life. When in the Navy he was fascinated by the engines and propellers of the naval ship on which he was stationed. This interest was also evidenced in his engineering degrees and professional work and career.
Dad’s mechanical interest translated into a very strong ability to make and repair just about anything. His first such project as a small boy was board that he cleaned up, rounded the corners of it, and gave to his mother as a breadboard. One of the best examples of his ingenuity was a homemade tent trailer he made that we used for family vacations. Dad went to a dealership, looked at a trailer, took some measurements and then came home and built it. He was very patient and particular. It sometimes seemed like it took him forever to complete a job but when it was done, he had done it right. He wired our homes, finish basements and garages, remodeled rooms, fixed cars, built barn, Christmas toys, log cabin, a utility trailer, and more. He was always willing to take on a new project.
I remember growing up that each Christmas and Thanksgiving the Allan Humpherys car mechanics shop was open for business. He spent days working on my sisters’ cars during these vacations when they were in college. My favorite was a blue car that Cheryl had. The ignition had some issues so Dad rewired it so you put the key in the ignition and turned it to the “on” position. Then you flipped a switch and, finally, pushed a button to engage the ignition.
Dancing
Dad loved to dance. In fact, he and Mom first met on a double date where the couples went dancing and Mom was impressed with his dancing ability. One of his favorite past times with Mom was dancing. After she died he continued to dance in a local singles square dance club.
Photography
Dad was an avid photographer and took thousands of photos of the family, home, and places he visited. All of us children have vivid memories of standing outside with the sun in our eyes as we waited for Dad to finish taking pictures.
Eating
Dad also enjoyed eating, especially Chinese food or anything anyone else would fix for him. In his later years Dad became notorious in our family for his interesting sandwiches with things like fresh spinach, cod liver oil, almond butter, tuna fish, avocado slices, bell peppers, and various types of sandwich meat.
Music
Dad loved music and rigged up a sound system for the car that enabled him to play his cassette tapes. He also really enjoyed watching the Lawrence Welk show and musical productions. His first musical was Oklahoma, which he watched in San Francisco when he was on shore leave in the Navy.
Puttering
Dad loved to Putter. Whenever he visited one of us he would find small jobs to do around our house or yard and would set to work fixing it, whether we asked for it or not. I think it was one way that he showed us that he loved us. We all relied on him and benefitted from his help with numerous household projects. As a boy I had lots of ideas about different things I wanted to do and make. Once I related some of these ideas to Dad with a request for help on a project. As he was assisting me, he said that I had enough projects to keep him busy for the rest of his life! Interestingly enough, just last month Dad spent two weeks at my house puttering around and helping with projects while I was in Pullman for school. I guess I did keep him going on projects right up until the end.
Church Callings
Dad served faithfully in multiple callings in the Church. Some of them include Elders Quorum President, Seventy, Scout Leader, High Priest Group Leader, 1st and 2nd Counselor in two different bishoprics, and Stake Clerk. Dad served as the Stake Clerk for about 18 years with two different stake presidencies. In all his callings Dad was reliable, dedicated, and accurate. He truly magnified his callings.
Values
Dad exhibited some important values that he strove hard to teach all of his children. He and Mom taught us about hard work, self-responsibility, thrift, honesty, and the value of an education. It is a tribute to Mom and Dad that their children all have graduated from college, many with advance degrees and they, in turn are passing on this legacy of learning to their children.
Another characteristic of Dad that impressed many of us was his patience, even temper, and ability to forgive. Dad had no malice and did not hold a grudge, even though he had ample opportunities to do so. While he sometimes said things that seemed overly blunt or callous, there was never any malice in his words. He had a tender heart and an innate faith in the goodness of others.
Family was everything to Dad. While he was not the most expressive or articulate in sharing his thoughts and feelings, he let each of his children know that he loved them. He strove to provide each child the specific support he/she needed. Much of the later years of his life were spent traveling from the home of one child to the home of another for family events or just to visit. Dad always gave tight hugs and firm handshakes. When asked why he gave such tight hugs, he replied “Because I love you so much.”
The most difficult challenge he faced was when Mom was sick with cancer. He did everything within his power to help her recover. Her death was a huge blow both to him and to the family, yet he was a pillar of strength for his children during this time of loss. He was always devoted to his family but after her death his entire focus was on family and his children.
Along with his love of family, was Dad’s unwavering faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of us were always impressed with the depth and sincerely of his prayers. One anecdote from my life helps illustrate how he taught us. One Sunday night there was a stake priesthood meeting that I didn’t want to attend. As the stake clerk, Dad went on ahead and gave me directions to come before the meeting started. I was hanging out with some friends and didn’t make the meeting. I really didn’t want to attend. I thought I was pretty smart and showed up just as the meeting was letting out and met Dad in the foyer of the church. I acted like I had been there the entire time but Dad was not fooled. As the stake clerk he sat up on the stand and could see everyone who was coming and going. He asked why I didn’t come and I came up with the best excuse my teenage mind could come up with and said, referring to my friends, “Well so and so didn’t go either.” Dad looked at me with sadness in his eyes and said, “Bryce, the Lord expects more from you.” That hit me like a ton of bricks and I wish he would have just chewed me out. I never forgot that and I think it illustrates the commitment Dad felt towards the gospel and his priesthood responsibilities. He felt on a very personal level the high expectations that the Lord had for him and he devoted all his time and energy to doing the work the Lord had for him to do.
Dad was a very independent person who did not want to be a burden on anyone, did not want to leave his home, and did not want to become decrepit and old. The Lord granted him these desires of his heart. On August 8, almost exactly 17 years since Mom died, he came home from church, laid down for an afternoon nap and never woke up. I believe it was a tender mercy of the Lord that Dad passed the way that he did.
Dad's Life Story, by Bryce, given at his funeral, August 2010
