Alan was born the 4th of 6 children to Clarence Paystrup and Bessie Greenhalgh, and was raised a 4th generation Paystrup in Levan.  He and his wife are the last ones left in Levan.  Also coming from Nephi pioneer stock, he has a very close connection with both communities.
He has lived in Levan most of his life with the exceptions of an LDS mission to England; 3 different colleges, studying Engineering, Electronics and Computers; and 2 short stays in Nephi.
Alan married Beverly Hall of Nephi, and they had 2 sons, David and Jeffrey. After her passing, he married Julie Howell, adding 3 children, Darcy, David and Daniel Gianvito to the family.  They then had a daughter, Heidi, for a total of  6 children raised in Levan.
After working at Rancho Trailer Manufacturing for 4 years, Alan went to work at the Nephi bakery, where he has been the head baker for most of the 40 years there.  The bakery has allowed him to be a part of everyone’s important events including this one today.
Today we honor our pioneer forefathers and what they did to settle this area.  As Alan looks back at the history of this town and his own involvement, he believes we are all pioneers in someway.  Things are always progressing forward with the efforts of current generations.  At an early age Alan was taught to be involved in community affairs.  Many of his own accomplishments are a product of this town and the leadership of others.
When he was a teenager, his step grandmother died.  In planning her funeral, her family in Georgia worked with the Paystrup’s to link Levan Chapel with a chapel in Georgia.  They both worked with their phone companies.  Special equipment was set up and the funeral held in Levan was heard live in Waycross Geogia.  They were told this was the first time for such a thing to take place.  This was a forerunner of conference calling.  Some time later this was repeated for his grandfather’s funeral, only this time they were able to do it themselves.
As a youth, besides farming, his family ran a small grocery store in town.  He marched all over the state with the band and was also involved with chorus and drama.   He helped his father read electric and water meters, and eventually took this job for several years.   Utility bills were hand calculated and left at the door.
After building his house, Alan was appointed to fill a 2 yr. vacancy on the Levan Town Board;  also serving as the Cemetery Sextant.  During this time, Levan was devastated by the floods of 82 and 83.  Levan was one of the worst hit communities in the state.  Although no homes were flooded, Levan’s entire water infrastructure was greatly damaged or destroyed.  With reconstruction came the opportunity of great improvement, which included 2 hydroelectric plants.  The town received a federal grant to study and develop a one of a kind electric load shedding system.  The current town hall and Cable TV system are the products of that project.
After serving on the town board, Alan served for several years as the Town Clerk.  It was the town’s goal to become computerized, but at the time costs were prohibitive for small communities.  His early interest and background in computers were invaluable.  Alan owned the 1st computer in Levan, started the 1st computer dealership in the area, and taught the 1st computer classes in the school district.  He used his computer to type minutes and do spreadsheets.  He also got records ready for the auditors to put on their computer.  He was experimenting with a way to computerize utility billing.  At this time, Levan was informed that their membership dues to a nationwide power organization had been used to develop an affordable computer system for small communities.  Levan became one of the 1st in the nation, and the 1st in the state to use this system.  Alan got utility billing operational and his wife Julie got the accounting portions going.  Together they got the town office in the new building up and running.
Alan was very active in local politics, and was a delegate to many county and state conventions.  This gave him the opportunity to meet with many state and national office holders or hopefuls.  He worked with a newly elected governor to get a school back in Levan.  He also ran for Juab County Recorder.  In both cases he was unsuccessful.
Alan was approached by the Levan Irrigation Co. about the possibility to write a computer program that could schedule water turns. This was back in the day of ditches.  Each 12 day turn was very different from each other.  The amount of water from several different sources was never the same, and where each farmer needed the water was also changing.  After several months of development and testing, this program was put into place and used for a number of years.  It not only made scheduling of turns much faster and easier, it allowed for last minute changes, and gave the farmer a nice printout instead of a hand written note.  This not only was a great benefit to the area, but Alan feels it was one of his greatest personal accomplishments.
As ditches were replaced by pipes, the way in which water was distributed changed dramatically for the better.  Instead of writing a program from scratch, Alan was able to use existing software, but the challenge and time spent were still very involving.  He read field meters once each week and hand delivered printouts.
As a new secondary irrigation water system was being installed for homes in Levan, the addition of many more meters meant that a new metering system had to be invented.  Joining with Nephi, Levan and Mona it became possible to read meters by computer with the new Sensus radio read system.  Alan had the assignment to develop the software needed, but professional help was required.  Pelorus Methods joined the project, and today irrigation meters are read daily with the results posted on a Website. This is the 1st of it’s kind.  This system has been studied by other groups and government agencies.  Alan also presented a workshop of the system at a state wide water conference.
In Alan’s semi- retirement years, he has served as the Town Deputy Clerk and currently as Chairman of the Planning Commission.
Alan loves his 10 (and 1 on the way) grandchildren, and was finally able to achieve a long awaited goal of building a model railroad in his basement.  He is more than happy to show it off to any interested persons.