Allan Wallis Staats entered Westtown from Malvern, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1956. After Westtown, Allan received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College and an MBA from The University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Allan’s career at Standard Oil Company, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Exxon International took him around the world and tapped into his love of travel. After his retirement in 1997, Allan and his wife, Barbara, continued to travel and enjoyed spending time at their beach house in New Jersey.
Always eager to host a celebration, Allan regularly helped plan his Westtown class reunions and visited campus often. He enjoyed working out the details of each gathering to ensure that every guest was taken care of and all present were included and had an enjoyable time. He loved his classmates and even called in to a class dinner when he could not attend in person. Barbara was also part of the Westown community, visiting campus, spending time with members of Allan’s class, and playing in the Westtown golf outing.
In 2016 Allan was diagnosed with systemic scleroderma, an autoimmune and vascular disease that involved his lungs, esophagus, and digestive system. Throughout his long illness, Allan continued to connect with his Westtown classmates. Sadly, Allan passed away on January 7, 2020.
Barbara reflected at that time, “He was my best friend, a wonderful, loving husband, with kindness and generosity, a great sense of humor, and a love of travel, fueled by curiosity.”
Over the years, the Westtown community experienced Allan and Barbara’s thoughtful generosity. Westtown meant a great deal to Allan. Allan once commented that Westtown, “had a profound impact on me and made me the person I am.”
The Staats consistently supported the Westtown Fund, capital projects, financial aid, and the endowment. They established the Allan and Barbara Staats Scholarship in 2006, which has been awarded to four upper school students over the years. In 2012, Allan and Barbara made a gift to support the Science Center renovation, and the Staats Lobby bears their name. And, in 2018, they were one of the first to make a gift to the Center for the Living Arts renovation. In 2016, Allan and Barbara were part of the historic announcement of the Class of 1956 60th reunion gift to Westtown of $6.3 million.
Allan and Barbara had close relationships with all of their scholarship recipients, meeting them in person and attending their graduations when possible. One of the Staats Scholarship recipients, KC Miller ’18, says, “Allan and Barbara’s generosity made Westtown so much more affordable and attainable for me. I am not sure that I would have been able to explore all of the things that I have explored and learned all of the things that I have learned about myself without Westtown being so affordable. It is so important and impactful to me when I hear stories about people continuing to make a Westtown education as affordable and accessible to all. I know that Allan’s memory will live on with his generosity and the work that he continues to do to make Westtown available to everybody and to change peoples’ lives.”
In 2021, we learned that Allan’s tremendous generosity would continue as he had made Westtown a beneficiary of his estate. At that time, Barbara told us that this was the largest donation Allan ever made, and it remains the largest gift in Westtown’s history. This extraordinary gift demonstrates Allan and Barbara’s deep understanding of the most critical and impactful opportunities for support at Westtown, and areas that lift up our current Strategic Vision. Their gift also honors their interests. The Staats gift includes support for: financial aid,endowment, and capital projects. In addition, the gift will endow Allan’s Westtown Fund contribution, providing annual operating support to the school. Allan and Barbara’s generosity is exemplary and will be felt for generations to come.
In honor of their transformational generosity, we renamed the Lane House (adjacent to the Lower School) the Staats House. To honor Allan’s talent for hospitality, the Staats House now serves as a welcoming location for alums and all campus visitors.
Originally published in the Summer 2021 Westonian
For general inquiries, please contact Dean of Advancement Ellen Urbanski at ellen.urbanski@westtown.edu