1964 graduate looks forward to being USU’s next alumni president
“Oh the places you’ll go,” a line from Dr. Suess, is a great description of Utah State alumnus, Dennis Sessions.
Sessions graduated from USU in 1964 with his bachelors of science in business administration and in 1971 he received his master’s in business administration also from USU. Sessions is the owner of Ace Hardware in Driggs, Idaho, and has been since 1974.
“My B.S. gave me a lot of training and skills to run a business and my MBA prepared me more to be a corporate officer,” he said.
He said the only thing [school] didn’t teach him was entrepreneuership.
Before Sessions bought and ran Ace Hardware, he was the co-owner and operator of the Teton West Best Western in Idaho which he ran with his father until 1989 when he sold it.
Sessions said his wife Lynn is also a USU graduate. Sessions said while he and his wife were students at USU in 1969, they were also dorm supervisors of Greaves Hall, which was then a girls’ dormitory.
“Back then, the dorm had hours for girls to abide by. [The] girls had to be in at night by 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 1 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. After that, the doors would be locked,” Sessions said. “The girls would forget their keys [which opened the front doors] so they would yell or throw things to get me to buzz them in since the doors were locked.”
He said the buzzing would wake him up at night.
“I started charging them $1 every time they woke me up. It worked; they remembered their keys [from then on],” Sessions said.
“We lived [in the dorm] while we had our first child, so we always had a baby-sitter,” Sessions said.
Sessions is the incoming president of the Alumni Association, his two-year term will begin July 1, 2001. He currently has a seat on the Board of Trustees, so he said he will be in Logan a lot.
“I look forward to that [coming to Logan frequently] as well as serving as president [of the Alumni Association],” Sessions said.
Sessions said the university has always meant a lot to him – that’s why he got involved with the Alumni Association.
One of his daughters, two granddaughters and his wife have all attended USU.
“I go to all the games, football and basketball; I have season tickets. I look forward to spending more time [at USU].”