After a 58-year banking career, Wendell Haley, '15, retired in January 1973 as a vice president of the First National Bank of Devils Lake, North Dakota. Haley began part-time employment at the First National Bank while attending the North Dakota School for the Deaf. He continued to work summers at the bank while completing his undergraduate study at Gallaudet University.
Upon his receiving a bachelor's degree at Gallaudet in 1920 he began working full time at the First National Bank and had held the positions of cashier and vice president. During his employment at the bank, he had seen the bank's staff increase from six to 16 and watched its assets grow from one million to 18 million dollars.
The retired banker was born in 1897 at Great Falls, MT. As an infant he moved with his parents to Grafton, ND where his father was employed as a linotype operator. At the age of three, he lost his hearing after a bout with spinal meningitis. The family moved to Devils Lake where Haley's grandfather was engaged in the implement business.