For more than 20 years, Wayne Wallace helped build the UF Career Resource Center from the ground up to become one of the best university career service centers in the nation.
After he became the center’s director in 1990, Wallace helped job-seeking students connect with companies and helped move the center from its original office in the Reitz Union basement to a first-floor suite. He retired in January 2011.
In early June, Wallace underwent what was supposed to be a routine surgery for diverticulitis, a digestive disease found in the large intestine. Doctors instead found pancreatic cancer.
On Tuesday morning, Wallace died from complications with the cancer at Shands Cancer Hospital at UF. He was 66 years old.
Friends and coworkers described Wallace as a “natural leader” and a mentor.
“He loved his employment, he loved his purpose at the university, and he loved his employees,” said Grant Thrall, a retired UF business geography professor and a close friend to Wallace. “Most importantly, he loved what he was doing for students.”
The Alligator was not able to reach Wallace’s wife.
Born in Chicago, Wallace grew up in Hammond, Ind., with his three siblings and parents, who were both deaf, Thrall said.
In 1972, Wallace first began working in career services when he became an assistant director of career planning and placement at Miami University in Ohio.
He later started working as the director of Indiana University Bloomington’s career resource center in 1977.
In 1990, former UF president John Lombardi offered Wallace a director position for career services at UF, which he accepted after some persuasion by Lombardi, Thrall said.
During his time as director, Wallace led the center to its ranking of No. 1 and No. 4 on The Princeton Review’s annual “Best Career Services” list for 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Heather White, who worked with Wallace for seven years before replacing him as the new center director in 2011, described Wallace as a man with a playful sense of humor, intelligence and a drive to inspire his staff to become leaders.
“He wanted the career center to be the best, and in order for the career service to be the best, we needed to be the best,” she said.
White added that under Wallace’s direction, she and 14 other former staff members have gone on to become directors of career resource centers at universities across the United States, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University and Carnegie Mellon University.
Shortly before retiring, Wallace was inducted into the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Academy of Fellows, which has selected fewer than 30 members nationally since 1994.
Apart from his staff, White said Wallace cared about helping students find jobs and better their futures.
Thrall said Wallace’s involvement with Career Showcase, a job fair held at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, has helped expose thousands of students to internship and job opportunities each spring and fall.
Wallace has also worked with the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce to connect students with opportunities to work in the city.
“He was very supportive of connecting the university to the local community and especially for internships,” White said.
Outside the office, Wallace was known to be an automobile and motorcycle enthusiast.
Growing up near factories outside of Chicago, Wallace’s interest flourished. When he was 16 years old, Wallace purchased his first motorcycle, a 1962 Harley-Davidson XLCH Sportster, Thrall said.
Thrall and Wallace often participated in weekend motorcycle rides with UF faculty and administrators.
On the road, Wallace drove his electric blue 2007 Harley-Davidson Street Glide while wearing a black helmet with checkered stripes racing down the center, which distinguished him from the pack, Thrall said.
Wallace also owned an orange 2007 Chevrolet C6 Corvette, reflecting his joint passion for automobiles and UF.
Wallace was an avid traveler who often went on extensive trips with his wife, Victoria.
White said Wallace’s experience with traveling led him to organize an exchange program with career resource center staff members at UF and the University of Leeds in England.
“For us to be able to travel and see how career centers run in other countries and to also helping students to be global-minded was something that [Wallace] definitely supported because he traveled so much,” she said.
As part of Wallace’s request, there will not be a funeral.
His remains will be taken to his home in Indiana, leaving behind a legacy that made UF’s center a leader in the field of career services.
“I don’t know if he realized how much of an impact he left in the field and on people’s lives,” White said.
“I think that’s something that a lot of people strive to do in their careers and their lives,” she said. “He was able to do that.”
Contact Chris Alcantara at calcantara@alligator.org.
