IN MEMORIAM: NYLEN LEE ALLPHIN, JR.

Longtime industry member and NAPEO stalwart Nylen Lee Allphin, Jr. passed away on March 29. Lee was an active and engaged NAPEO member, serving as the Heartlands Leadership Council Chair for many years and a member of the NAPEO Board and Executive Committee. He was instrumental in our efforts to pass the PEO registration bill in Missouri. Melissa Kelly of ADP then worked as NAPEO’s state government affairs director, she remembers Lee’s efforts in the fight to pass the Missouri bill.

“I had the privilege of working closely with Lee to pass the Missouri PEO statute during my tenure at NAPEO. His passion for the PEO industry, his knowledge and his expertise were critical to success. We encountered many challenges – varying opinions within the industry on how to (or if) we should continue, as well as work by opponents in Jefferson City to undermine the effort. Lee’s leadership carried us, and the bill was enacted in 2018,” Kelly says.

Like so many PEO operators, Lee’s career didn’t begin with dreams of running a PEO. Lee held chemistry and chemical engineering degrees from Brigham Young University, a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Colorado and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He spent many years working in the chemical engineering field. Lee then found himself as a principal owner of a chemical plant in Joplin, MO. Soon thereafter he found out he was responsible for much of the HR and administrative tasks necessary to support his 70 or so employees. This experience would lead to him thinking of how he could help small businesses with HR needs and tasks. He connected with T. Joe Willey and Rex Eley, both industry pioneers in their own rights. Lee formally entered the PEO industry in 1989 when he founded Employer Advantage in Joplin, MO.

Over the next three decades, Lee built a successful business that served clients in several states. He sold his business to G&A Partners in 2022, but remained involved within the company and the PEO industry. John Allen, CEO of G&A Partners, remembers Lee as a kind and caring man.

“I first met Lee as he was rolling off the NAPEO board and I was rolling on. We were both BYU Alumni and they had just upset Oklahoma at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. That gave us plenty to talk about,” Allen says, “Lee had a great passion for the PEO industry and an incredible desire to serve and help others. He also willingly shared his success with others, contributing to a number of worthy causes in southwestern Missouri. He was a great storyteller, and he was delighted to draw upon his years of experience to mentor a fellow competitor. We were honored that he chose G&A Partners to continue the legacy of the PEO that he built.”

Melissa Kelly echos those sentiments. “On a personal level, Lee’s kindness, faith and humble nature also taught me a great deal,” she says, “A few years ago, Lee put me on a distribution list, and I received emails he sent around holidays. The excerpt below is from Thanksgiving 2021:

“I have come to realize that we can choose to be grateful, no matter what. It is a choice. This type of gratitude transcends anything happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer… Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges. This is not a gratitude of the lips but of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind.” – Lee Allphin

“Like so many others, I will always be grateful to have worked with and learned from Lee, and most importantly, to call him a friend,” Kelly continues.

Indeed, Lee was always willing to help others and share his time to help better the industry. He joined NAPEO from the get-go and always took an active role. Thanks to Lee, the PEO regulatory environment in Missouri is more stable and better for PEOs. Many in the PEO industry counted Lee as a mentor and friend. He cared deeply about others, especially his beloved family. Lee deservedly –the industry’s highest honor—received the 2018 Michaeline A. Doyle Award in recognition of his selfless service, generous spirit and leadership.