The Grinnell Rotary Club held its regular weekly meeting on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. Following the opening of the meeting, members shared good news and club business. The speaker for this week’s meeting is Alan Ricks, retired regional Extension Director for Iowa State University 2011.
In May 2026, Alan turned off the lights in the classroom after a total of 33 and a half years of teaching management, ethics, religion, and philosophy classes. Alan grew up on a farm in Afton, Iowa and holds degrees from Morningside College, the University of Dubuque, and UNI. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps, is an ordained United Methodist minister, and spent 15 years in healthcare administration and fund development in the Waterloo area. He also enjoyed his side light career as an adjunct instructor for Iowa colleges, most notably for Upper Iowa University and Iowa Valley Community College. He is now enjoying serving as the part-time visitation chaplain for Mayflower Homes.
Alan began his remarks concerning the Iowa Ethiopia partnership. Ethiopia is where coffee was first discovered and has some of the oldest churches in the world. Ethiopia in the core of Africa, the eastern side of Africa, about the size of Texas and Oklahoma combined. It has the highest mountains on the African continent, over 14,000 feet high and the lowest land area in the world, 500 feet below sea level, the Danakil Depression.
He was stationed in Peace Corps at a little town called Gewani, out where it was really hot because it was really low. Bahru worked with me when I was in Ethiopia back in '73 and '74, and his dream was to somehow get to the United States to study and the Morningside College in Sioux City was an instrument in helping that dream to reality. He is originally from a town called McKelly in northern Ethiopia. At that time, Ethiopia had exactly one university, and it was headquartered in Addis Ababa.
Bahru made it to the States in '74. He transferred to the University of Washington at Seattle where he continues to live and made that his home. He works for Seattle Power and Light Company.
Returning to Ethiopia, Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia. He was finally deposed in 1974. The Marxist regime that followed Haile Selassie was called the Derg, and the Derg was in power from 1974 to 1991.A group of students at Addis Ababa University formed a little defense mechanism. They were all from the northern territory of Tigray, where McKelly is the capital, and they decided to try to object to this, the dirt. Finally in 1991, the TPLF, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, was successful in overthrowing the dirt bringing in a new regime called the Ethiopian People's Liberation Movement. One of the original students who was part of the TPLF was a gentleman by the name of Maillis. Maillis became eventually the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. He began a movement of building universities across Ethiopia.
Regarding Universities, in 2013, Alan had a phone call from his friend, Bahru asking if Iowa State University had a good college of veterinary science. Bahru had just returned from Ethiopia where he met with the President of McKelley University, Professor Kendaya. Professor Kendaya wanted to setup a connection with Iowa University College of Veterinary Science. At that time the Universities of McKelly both had about 25,000 students.
Alan started making telephone calls at Iowa State and eventually met with Dr. Paul Plummer at the College of Veterinary Science. Dr. Paul Plummer was an instructor at Iowa State and he was teaching goat health at Iowa State College of Veterinary Science. Goats are closely related to camels and it ends up that Dr. Paul Plummer is one of the world's leading experts on camel health. teaching at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. There followed a meeting with Dr Plummer and with him was Dr. John Coteney. John had a veterinary science degree from the University of Oklahoma and was most interested in ancient languages. His specialty was "Biz," which is the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Two years on in 2016, Alan and Bahara went back to Ethiopia to explore there could be a link between the veterinary colleges of Iowa and McKelly universities. Calamino is the campus of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Mckelly in Mckelly, Ethiopia. There is a hay barn and a couple dairy barns, and inside the dairy barn was a nice herd of Holstein cows that looked kind of like Iowa.
Alan asked the First Presbyterian Church to assist in raising funds. Iowa State University received a grant from USAID that started an African Scholars Exchange Program. It wasn't exclusively for Ethiopians, although Paul Plummer made sure that we were including Ethiopians in the process, but there were each year for several years we had four, five, six African professors coming to Iowa State through this grant program.
And then in 2019, doctors John Potney and Matt Brewer, who is the beef specialist at Iowa State, traveled to McKelley and they took with them boxes of supplies of stethoscopes and thermometers that were presented to each of the graduate degree graduates in the College of Veterinary Science at that spring's graduation ceremony. Those gifts specifically came from First Presbyterian Church from Iowa.
All seemed well until the end of 2019 when ethnic tension between the TPLF and the Tigray People's Liberation Movement began to boil over. On November 4th 2020 th federal government of Ethiopia sent in its troops Tigray Province. McKelly was caught in the crosshairs of all of that and it really wreaked havoc on the College of Veterinary Medicine. McKelly University was not spared.
The aftermath of the war that lasted two years in Tigray province, the international estimates are 600 to 800,000 deaths. All telecommunications was blocked for a year and a half. Finally, through South Africa's help, a truce was signed on November 3rd. exactly two years later November 3rd of 2022.
In May of 2023 the faculty and families of the College of Veterinary Science began to gather back at the campus to try to put their campus back together. Presently, each graduating class is 50 to 60,
First Presbyterian Church of Grinnell provided famine relief work and directing it through the faculty at McKelly University in 2023 and 2024. Finally, in July of 2023, the first classes were held again with students being educated and outreach being done. The fieldwork out in the territory was underway by the fall of 2023. First Presbyterian is
hoping buy some of the basic supplies for graduating students at McKellen University College of Veterinary Science. Grinnell State Bank has been helping to make currency transfers.
Alan Rick’s presentation appears on the Rotary Club of Grinnell website in the section labeled “Stories, June 16, 2026.” Grinnell Rotary Website https://portal.clubrunner.ca/1642
He was stationed in Peace Corps at a little town called Gewani, out where it was really hot because it was really low. Bahru worked with me when I was in Ethiopia back in '73 and '74, and his dream was to somehow get to the United States to study and the Morningside College in Sioux City was an instrument in helping that dream to reality. He is originally from a town called McKelly in northern Ethiopia. At that time, Ethiopia had exactly one university, and it was headquartered in Addis Ababa.
Bahru made it to the States in '74. He transferred to the University of Washington at Seattle where he continues to live and made that his home. He works for Seattle Power and Light Company.
Returning to Ethiopia, Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia. He was finally deposed in 1974. The Marxist regime that followed Haile Selassie was called the Derg, and the Derg was in power from 1974 to 1991.A group of students at Addis Ababa University formed a little defense mechanism. They were all from the northern territory of Tigray, where McKelly is the capital, and they decided to try to object to this, the dirt. Finally in 1991, the TPLF, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, was successful in overthrowing the dirt bringing in a new regime called the Ethiopian People's Liberation Movement. One of the original students who was part of the TPLF was a gentleman by the name of Maillis. Maillis became eventually the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. He began a movement of building universities across Ethiopia.
Regarding Universities, in 2013, Alan had a phone call from his friend, Bahru asking if Iowa State University had a good college of veterinary science. Bahru had just returned from Ethiopia where he met with the President of McKelley University, Professor Kendaya. Professor Kendaya wanted to setup a connection with Iowa University College of Veterinary Science. At that time the Universities of McKelly both had about 25,000 students.
Alan started making telephone calls at Iowa State and eventually met with Dr. Paul Plummer at the College of Veterinary Science. Dr. Paul Plummer was an instructor at Iowa State and he was teaching goat health at Iowa State College of Veterinary Science. Goats are closely related to camels and it ends up that Dr. Paul Plummer is one of the world's leading experts on camel health. teaching at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. There followed a meeting with Dr Plummer and with him was Dr. John Coteney. John had a veterinary science degree from the University of Oklahoma and was most interested in ancient languages. His specialty was "Biz," which is the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Two years on in 2016, Alan and Bahara went back to Ethiopia to explore there could be a link between the veterinary colleges of Iowa and McKelly universities. Calamino is the campus of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Mckelly in Mckelly, Ethiopia. There is a hay barn and a couple dairy barns, and inside the dairy barn was a nice herd of Holstein cows that looked kind of like Iowa.
Alan asked the First Presbyterian Church to assist in raising funds. Iowa State University received a grant from USAID that started an African Scholars Exchange Program. It wasn't exclusively for Ethiopians, although Paul Plummer made sure that we were including Ethiopians in the process, but there were each year for several years we had four, five, six African professors coming to Iowa State through this grant program.
And then in 2019, doctors John Potney and Matt Brewer, who is the beef specialist at Iowa State, traveled to McKelley and they took with them boxes of supplies of stethoscopes and thermometers that were presented to each of the graduate degree graduates in the College of Veterinary Science at that spring's graduation ceremony. Those gifts specifically came from First Presbyterian Church from Iowa.
All seemed well until the end of 2019 when ethnic tension between the TPLF and the Tigray People's Liberation Movement began to boil over. On November 4th 2020 th federal government of Ethiopia sent in its troops Tigray Province. McKelly was caught in the crosshairs of all of that and it really wreaked havoc on the College of Veterinary Medicine. McKelly University was not spared.
The aftermath of the war that lasted two years in Tigray province, the international estimates are 600 to 800,000 deaths. All telecommunications was blocked for a year and a half. Finally, through South Africa's help, a truce was signed on November 3rd. exactly two years later November 3rd of 2022.
In May of 2023 the faculty and families of the College of Veterinary Science began to gather back at the campus to try to put their campus back together. Presently, each graduating class is 50 to 60,
First Presbyterian Church of Grinnell provided famine relief work and directing it through the faculty at McKelly University in 2023 and 2024. Finally, in July of 2023, the first classes were held again with students being educated and outreach being done. The fieldwork out in the territory was underway by the fall of 2023. First Presbyterian is
hoping buy some of the basic supplies for graduating students at McKellen University College of Veterinary Science. Grinnell State Bank has been helping to make currency transfers.
Alan Rick’s presentation appears on the Rotary Club of Grinnell website in the section labeled “Stories, June 16, 2026.” Grinnell Rotary Website https://portal.clubrunner.ca/1642
If you are interested in learning more about service to the community, membership, and the power of networking, come visit us at the Rotary Club of Grinnell. The club meets every Tuesday evening at 5:30 at West Side Family Restaurant.
Peter Jackson
