by Michele Taylor
Alice Wells is known for her warm and frequent laughter. Upbeat and energetic, she has worked many interesting jobs, and has done a great deal for the Senior Center as a wise and well-informed leader over the years.
Her earliest employment was working for the old Eastern Airlines in Washington DC, and one of her assignments was to pose with her colleagues for a ”South of the Border” flight promotion.
Alice, far left, with Eastern Airlines colleagues
Alice was raised in New York and Connecticut, studied a year at college and at nineteen quit to pursue her dream of an airline career. She worked as a ticket agent in Washington D.C.
In 1953 she married Bud Wells, who also worked for the airline, and in 1958 moved to San Francisco, and got a job at an advertising agency, and was quickly promoted to production manager. Her husband worked in Saigon for an airline ferrying soldiers back and forth during the Vietnam war.
After the war, Alice and her husband adopted two children, My Linh and Keoki, and moved to Rohnert Park, near Sonoma, California, and with school age children, soon became involved in education, running for, and being elected to the school board three times.
While she lived in Rohnert Park, she also worked part time as office manager, keeping books and all aspects of the job. Due to her good work for the dean of that church, she was asked to help with other area churches, and discovered that in another church, someone absconded with fifty thousand dollars! Wow.
My Linh attended Crescent City State University studying the Criminal Justice system. She now works for the Sonoma County Justice System. Keoki worked himself up from the bottom to become a Construction Manager in Portland.
Alice retired in 1990 and promptly became an office manager in Neighbor To Neighbor, a mediation service, where she helped to plan, schedule and even do bill collecting!
After her second retirement in 2002, Alice joined SSSC only to become president for four years. and now, 17 years later, still volunteers, letting us enjoy her knowledge and good humor.