The Good Life – July-August 2020

LOCAL HERO | JOE WALLEVAND
An advertisement
that intrigued
Wallevand into
joining the military.
“we did not lose anybody and killed
eleven VC.” Wallevand retrieved and
still has a Viet Cong flag and some
propaganda.
Wallevand returned home from
Vietnam in 1968: “I did not get spit on
when I came back. A lot of my friends
had very bad encounters.” Several
years later, a colleague called him
“a baby killer.” Wallevand explained:
“At the time, I didn’t like hearing that
and feel the same now. It is coming
on my 50 year anniversary of going to
Vietnam.”
Wallevand has been married for 47
years to fellow teacher, and fellow
Concordia graduate, Linda. They are proud of their
successful, creative children. Mike works for Thompson-
Reuters Find Law; Steve for Media Productions; Deb for
Old Hat Creative managing promotions for NCAA sports
teams.
Linda described her husband as “a real renaissance man”
with talents in music, writing, arts, science and teaching.
They are both musicians. Linda has been a piano teacher
for 40 years, while Wallevand sings in the local Master
Chorale. Wallevand has an uncanny ability to figure things
out: “In our little school system – he was the first computer
teacher,” and Wallevand chimed in: “They just dropped a
computer in front of me one day, and I just figured it out. I
used to describe myself as a full service science teacher.”
Linda described their first date, while at Concordia: “It
was in January and it was 20 below. We were walking
on campus and I was freezing. Joe was pointing out
the constellations for me.” Wallevand is an amateur
astronomer and the couple has travelled to Canada to
witness and celebrate two solar eclipses and they will
soon be going to their third event.
Wallevand currently does public speaking of many types
and is active in talking with local students.
When asked, “What does ‘the good life’ mean to you,’
Wallevand responded: “The good life means peace and
being with the people you love.”
Wallevand is reluctant to accept the title of “hero”: “You
want to talk about heroes? My big brother was my hero.
But there are guys who aren’t here anymore - their names
are on the Wall. There are the guys who came back from
the war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who
don’t know what to do with their lives so they end them.
Then there are the Agent Orange victims.” He goes on to
describe local Vietnam War Medal of Honor winner, Loren
D. Hagen, whom the new West Fargo American Legion
is named after, a member of a special unit of Special
Forces called the MACV-SOG. These soldiers engaged in
32 / THE GOOD LIFE