Post Falls man, 80, earns WSU alumni award
An 80-year-old Post Falls man was recognized Monday with a Washington State University Alumni Achievement Award.
The award honors WSU alumni for “significant service” to the college, their community, profession or the nation.
Harley Hamilton Tuck Sr. attended WSU from 1946-50 and 1953-54. He entered college after serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, according to the biography submitted with his nomination for the Alumni Achievement Award. Tuck, a technical sergeant and radioman/gunner, was completing his 28th mission over Europe when the B-17 bomber he was flying in was shot down.
Tuck spent a year in a prisoner of war camp in Krems, Austria. He is the recipient of several military medals including the Distinguished Flying Cross.
At WSU, Tuck earned bachelor’s degrees in horticulture and agriculture education. He taught vocational agriculture at Kittitas (Washington) High School for six years and later spent several years overseas as an agricultural missionary and working with the United Nations Food and Agriculture agency.
He retired to North Idaho, where he has been involved with Coeur d’Alene’s First Presbyterian Church.
More than 400 WSU graduates have been recipients of the award since it was created by the alumni association’s board of directors in 1970. Tuck is one of nine graduates selected for recognition this spring, according to Christina Parrish of WSU’s Alumni Relations.