Victor C. Wallin, State Assembly member and local civic and conservation leader, was born in Washburn, Wisconsin, May 27, 1899. He attended Grand View, Wisconsin, public schools and graduated from La Salle Extension University with courses in accounting methods. In 1924 he became a partner in Wallin Brothers and Habelt, petroleum products distributors. He operated a general store and, after 1948, an appliance store in Grand View. Prior to his election to the State Assembly in 1952 Wallin was Grand View Town Chairman, and a member of the Bayfield County Board, 1937-1947. Active also in conservation affairs, he was a member of the Grand View, Bayfield County and South Bay Conservation clubs, and president of the Bayfield County unit of the Conservation Congress.
Wallin was elected in 1952 as a Republican to represent Bayfield County in the Assembly. During 1956-1960, the last two of his four terms, his district included both Bayfield and Ashland counties. In the Assembly he served on the Conservation, Elections, and Labor committees. His primary legislative interests were education and conservation, especially watershed management. During his legislative career he also served on the Duluth-Superior High Bridge Commission, on the Legislative Council's Motor Vehicle Safety Committee and its special Great Lakes Ports Committee, and on the Governor's Water Resources Coordinating Committee. During the 1950's Wallin expressed concern for encroaching federal government activities and supported unsuccessful efforts to call a constitutional convention to limit federal powers. He also supported proposed state constitutional amendments to permit representation in the Legislature on the basis of land area as well as population. On educational issues he opposed school district consolidation and state and federal control over education, but supported a plan for government loans to college students.
Victor Wallin was a personal friend as well as political ally of Republican Governors Vernon Thomson and Warren Knowles. After Wallin's defeat in the 1960 election, Governor Knowles appointed him to the Governor's Water Resources Committee, to the Wisconsin Resource Conservation Council, and to the State Forestry Advisory Committee. In other civic affairs Wallin was chairman of the Bayfield County Community Action Committee, 1967-1968; a trustee of the Bayfield County Rest Home; a member and official of the Lake Superior Council and of Indianhead Country, Inc. He has taken an active interest in the Boy Scouts of America and several other organizations.
