His time at the Franklin Academy afforded him an academic scholarship to another Congregational Church-affiliated school, Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, where he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1920.

[5] and Van Pelt served as Deputy United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska from 1930 to 1934.

[3] Van Pelt was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on May 22, 1957, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska vacated by Judge John Wayne Delehant.

He assumed senior status on May 5, 1970, and his service terminated on April 27, 1988, upon his death.

[3] While on the federal bench, Van Pelt was appointed to the committee that drafted the Federal Rules of Evidence by Chief Justice Earl Warren, by Chief Justice Warren Burger to a committee to oversee the Federal Magistrates Act of 1968, to the Committee of Judicial Ethics, and was named Special Master by the Supreme Court for four boundary disputes {Texas v. Louisiana, 426 U.S. 465 (1976), California v. Nevada, 447 U.S. 125 (1980), Ohio v. Kentucky, Illinois v. Kentucky, [1] 444 U.S. 335 (1980), and Kentucky v. Indiana, 474 U.S. 1 (1976)}.