Local man honored by WSU alumni program

A former Adams County resident is one of the latest inductees into the Washington State University College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences Hall of Honored Alumni. The late Otto Amen graduated from then Washington State College in 1937 with his degree in pharmacy. After graduation, he worked as a pharmacist until assuming management of his parents’ farm halfway between Ritzville and Odessa where he and his wife, Doris, farmed for most of their lives.

Amen became active in a variety of farm-related organizations, including the Washington Association of Wheat Growers and the Washington Wheat Commission. He also served as state coordinator of the Food for Peace Program and relished an international trip to demonstrate the uses of wheat for people in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan, Ceylon and other countries.

Amen represented citizens from farming communities in eastern Washington for 16 years as a state representative in the Washington State Legislature. There, he served on the Agriculture Committee, chaired the Budget Committee, and was Speaker Pro Tempore for four years.

He is a recipient of the WSU Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the WSU Alumni Association. Family members of Amen, who died April 29, 2011, represented him at last Saturday’s ceremony.