Jeff Allman was so motivated to succeed at Purdue, he front-loaded his schedule with up to 27 credit hours a semester. He graduated in three years, and got a Master's in his fourth.

Allman grew up in Griffith, Indiana, near Gary. “My father graduated Purdue with a BSME in 1950,” he said. “Education, Scouting, and being a good neighbor were priorities in our household.  My three younger brothers and I are all Purdue graduates and Eagle Scouts.”

Engineering requires high-level math, but Allman’s high school didn’t offer it. “My Math teacher bought a self-study calculus book for me,” Allman remembers. “I learned enough to take Honors Freshman Calculus at Purdue and receive credit for the prerequisite course too.”

Jeff Allman (top left) and his brothers are all Eagle Scouts and Purdue grads.

Those prerequisite credits, plus summer classes at Purdue Calumet (now Purdue Northwest), while living with his parents and working summer jobs, enabled him to accelerate his undergraduate career.  “I made lifetime friends at Purdue,” Allman said. “I lived first at Wiley Hall, then AKL fraternity, then the Graduate House.  I was active on the Purdue Student Union Junior Board, the worst player on the Purdue Water Polo Team, an officer in the fraternity, and an avid pinochle player.”

He continued to pile up credit hours, maxing out at 27 hours one semester.  “Every semester I worried I was taking one course too many, but would then get through it,” Allman remembers. “The worst was taking the Physics final exam in the Armory. It was negative-6 degrees that day — I looked it up —  and the proctors had not turned on the Armory heat soon enough beforehand.  There we were, taking exams with gloves on and seeing our breath.”

The Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity in 1975, posing as faux bank robbers. Jeff Allman (far right, holding the Tommy gun) found time for all sorts of extracurriculars, even with his heavy schedule of classes.

Aim high

Among the classes Allman took was an Introduction to Engineering course from Professor Joe Hoffman. “Professor Hoffman had an Air Force research contract at Zucrow Labs,” Allman said. “Vietnam had just ended, the Cold War was on, and the Air Force was trying to eke the best performance from supersonic aircraft designs using sophisticated computer optimization programs.  A Masters student had withdrawn unexpectedly mid-project, and Prof. Hoffman asked me to step in as an undergraduate research assistant my junior year.” 

Prof. Hoffman also wanted him to take a graduate course, Gas Dynamics, the following Fall, which met the same time as a mandatory senior class.  Allman went to the Dean to request the substitution. “The Dean said, ‘You have so many credits, why don’t you just graduate now?  Then graduate courses will apply to your Master’s degree,’”  Allman recalls.  “I was shocked, but agreed.  I earned my BSME in three years. The fourth year, we finished the Air Force contract and I earned my MSME as well.”

In the 1970s, Jeff Allman conducted undergraduate research in propulsion optimization at Zucrow Labs, which is now the largest academic propulsion lab in the world.

“This wasn’t a grand plan,” laughs Allman, “it was a very fortuitous series of events.  I will never forget the phone call with my parents to tell them the news and to ask if their monthly college subsidy would still continue the fourth year!  They were very proud of me and said yes. I definitely worked hard to take advantage of the opportunities offered me.  Purdue gave me an excellent education!”

Purdue now offers a 4 + 1 option for students to get both their Bachelor’s and Master’s in five years.  However, Allman was the first Purdue Mechanical Engineering student to finish both degrees in four years.

Onward and upward

“Coming out of school, I had job leads in both aerospace and more traditional ME roles,” Allman says. “I was recruited to Exxon by Stan Tebbe, a Purdue ME alum.”  Allman had nine different assignments over his ten years at Exxon (now ExxonMobil).

In 1986, when his then-wife was offered a staff position at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, they accepted his-and-hers Senior Project Manager positions there. Then in 1992, he left Mayo to start his own consulting engineering career.

Jeff found a unique niche in Minnesota: finding under-utilized buildings, and converting them into productive commercial and governmental properties.

But one job clearly wasn’t enough!  “During my time with Mayo, I dealt with their many older legacy buildings,” Allman said. “Thanks to several staff mentors, I learned about buildings, architecture, and historic preservation. I began to buy derelict buildings and to rehabilitate them into productive assets. Over more than 30 years, I collaborated with local governments to fund, adapt, and reuse old and historic buildings, giving them productive new lives. It’s been a great business. The community has been happy to see the past both preserved and productive again.”

Now Allman is shifting gears again: starting retirement, happily married, healthy, a new grandparent, and able to be a Purdue benefactor both now and in his estate planning. “I cannot wait to discover what comes next,” he said.

Jeff Allman and wife Bethany, enjoying their retirement in Minnesota. "The key to life is to always listen to smart people, and ask them to teach you what they know," says Jeff. "Always keep learning."

Writer: Jared Pike, jaredpike@purdue.edu, 765-496-0374