Former Perry mayor and champion college basketball coach Glenn Theulen joined the pantheon on the Soumas Court Wall of Witnesses in ceremonies held Thursday at the Hotel Pattee, with many heartfelt and humorous tributes offered to the consummate Perry Boy.
Theulen was a graduate of the Perry High School Class of 1943, and he went on to be mayor of Perry, Korean War veteran, World War II veteran and member of the Buena Vista University Hall of Fame, Keene State College Hall of Fame and Perry High School Hall of Fame.
“Mr. Theulen was a lifelong advocate for the city of Perry and for the students and staff of the Perry Community School District,” said former PHS Athletic Director Tom Lipovac, who nominated Theulen for the Wall of Witnesses honors. “Serving as mayor for two terms, he arranged the design and construction of the Perry Veterans Memorial Park and was instrumental in securing the Milwaukee Railroad caboose that commemorates Perry’s rich railroad history.”
Theulen was also a Hall of Fame athlete, coach and educator. He was a 1962 graduate of Buena Vista University and was inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. He coached at Keene Stale College in Keene, N.H. from 1968 to 1984, compiling 210 victories, four New England State College Athletic Conference championships and three National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Tournament appearances, making him among the winningest men’s basketball coaches in KSC history. He died in Perry in 2013 at the age of 88.
Hometown Heritage at the Carnegie Library Museum Director Bill Clark welcomed the crowd to Thursday’s unveiling and gave some history of and inspiration for the Wall of Witnesses, which was founded by Roberta Green Ahmanson at the time of the Hotel Pattee’s restoration in the mid-1990s.
Mahlon Conaway, a schoolmate of Theulen’s since kindergarten, eulogized his lifelong friend and fellow member of the Greatest Generation of World War II fighters against fascism.
Mike Theulen, the son of Glenn, and Midge Theulen, the wife of Mike, each delivered brief remarks, recalling the spirit of both Glenn Theulen and Sharon Theulen, Glenn’s wife, who died in 2023.
