Jeff Allen Remarks at Al's Service

Albert C. Allen Remembered

Welcome Good morning! I am Jeff, Albert Allen’s oldest child, and it is my honor to speak to you today about my Dad. On behalf of all his family, thanks so much for coming to this memorial service. It is wonderful to see so many relatives that have come from all over the country, and so many friends of our families and people that used to work with him years ago. Also, some of the wonderful caretakers who help him during his last weeks at home are here today and want to give them a special thanks for all that they did. He enjoyed getting to know you and your care and compassion for him will never be forgotten. Thanks so much to all of you for coming!

Dad died Friday morning, August 15th at home at his condominium in Warren with his family nearby. He was cremated and two weeks later, on what would have been his 92nd birthday, August 29th, we buried his ashes beside my mother, Rosemary Allen, his wife of 48 years, in a small ceremony at Forest Chapel cemetery in Barrington. Today, we gather not to mourn him, but to remember him and celebrate life. And, what a great life he had, and what a great Dad and wonderful man he was!

Shortly after his death, some of his grandchildren, led by Rich’s son Peter and my son Ted, established a website, a blog I guess you would call it, in his memory and for the past few weeks family and friends have been posting on it. I heard it was up to 95 pages the other day and still growing. It is a wonderful tribute to his life, his sense of humor and the impact he had on people close to him –his family, friends and former employees. If you have time, I hope you will come to the reception in the church hall following this service to see some of the photos and comments collected in the blog or check it on-line.

When someone lives almost 92 years, has such a large family, and plays such an active role in all their lives, it is daunting task to try to try to summarize it. The blog is a good start, but even just scratches the surface and I certainly I can’t try to do so today, so I’ll just going to try to hit on a few major things that I think marked his life and the man.

First, consider how fortunate he was growing up. Two caring parents from very different backgrounds and different parts of the country – one from the Midwest, a conservative descendent of some of the original founders of Akron Ohio; the other a romantic, would be opera star who had come east from California to pursue her career – combined with a bunch of interesting relatives from both their families that would come to live with them for months at a time, so enriched his life growing up. Imagine growing up in 1920’s and 1930’s in an 8 bedroom, eight bathroom house in White Plains, New York, summering in a huge summer house of equal grandeur in the beautiful art colony of Rockport, Massachusetts, and having the luxury of taking a cross country trip by family car to spend the your summer with relatives in San Francisco and California during the middle of the great depression. He got to travel the country and enjoy the best of times during what was the worse of times for most American families. Wow! How lucky he was. But, he knew this and always appreciated it.

Given all the advantages that he had growing up, it always amazes me that Dad wasn’t spoiled or complacent. Instead, he had a built-in drive to succeed and to take care of his family. And, most of his life was focused on doing just that.

With no college degree (he had flunked out of college in 1938),and a family of four by the time he was 30, he had to make it on his own, and he did. There were many lean years, especially in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, that would test his abilities to the limit, but he would always persevere. I remember Dad starting Allen Distributing in 1954, and our moving to Rhode Island just as Hurricane Carol stuck and wiped out his inventory of TV sets and appliances that were stored in warehouses along the Providence River. And, I remember the really difficult times in the early 1960’s after he lost some his key product lines and he had to relocate the company from Providence to Warren and scrambled to make ends meet by developing a background music service called “Moodmaster,” then a small boat and boat trailer line called “Allencraft”. If they look hard, Dick and Mary Glenn might even find a few Moodmaster tapes hiding in their basement at our old house at 29 Rumstick.Road today. He spent many a night making tapes down there. One way or another, Dad always made ends meet and through his hard work, and great business sense and he preserved. He was a great entrepreneur. Through his talent and efforts, Allen Distributing evolved into Avid Corporation where he went on to develop concepts like Travelab – mobile educational facilities that were sold from Alaska to Puerto Rico in the educational revolution that took place under President Johnson in 60’s and early 70’s; to develop a top-rated line of stereo speakers that were sold around the world under the Avid name in the mid and late 1970’s ; and to capture a 90% share in the world-wide airline passenger market. At its peak, company employed over 450 people and made or assembled all its own products. In 1982, at the age of 65, Dad was able to cash in on his success. He sold the company (the stock market was about 770) and spent the rest of his life investing successfully and living comfortably. In fact, he always said that did better financially after he retired than before.

But, what is more important to me is what the chose to do with his success once he had it. After retirement, Dad funded most of the college education for most of his 11 grandchildren and was a “zesty philanthropist” to many. By no means am I talking about huge sums of money, just about making a difference in some peoples lives. He would meet people in their work at a restaurant, engage them in conversation as he so liked to do, learn their life story, and wanted to make a difference. And, in a number of cases, he did just that helping previously unknown young people with the tuition to get a get a college degree get a new car or whatever was most needed. He didn’t want a lot for himself and he always had a big heart for others!

Dad had a unique sense of humor and his practical jokes were legendary. Here is one: In 1936, when Dad first tried out for football at William & Mary he had to take a brief physical during which time they also took measurements for uniforms. The varsity line coach, Ottis Douglas was in charge with another assistant taking down the measurements. One such measurement was the player's chest measurements inhaled and exhaled. It was a measurement of lung capacity. The coach stood behind Dad holding the tape in the middle of his back and asked him to inhale deeply---hold--then exhale. He heard the coach say, "look at this. It is unbelievable." By the oo's and ah' s that he heard from the people at his back, Dad figured that he had just set the record by a large amount. In fact, so much so that Coach Douglass asked the head coach to come over to the bench and then asked him to repeat the procedure. Dad hoped that he could match the same record and an audience grew to watch. They all stood from behind (thank heavens) and watched the tape measurement as Dad filled his lungs to the full -extent and Dad carefully, discretely, stuck a finger under the tape on the front of his chest and gradually

pulled the tape about the 5 inches that he estimated he had pulled it the first time, then quickly exhaled before he could be caught. There were applause and whistles and Dad figures his record still stands.

The audacity of him at that age! He remained a great practical joker all his life.

Another observation, Dad was generally a good judge of people, but nowhere did he do better than in picking his life partners. My mom was a saint to all of her children, and greatly loved by all who knew her. Simply put, she was the greatest! Fun at heart, a wonderful mother, friend and wife. When she died of a stroke in 1989, Mom and Dad had been married for 48 years and were just beginning to focus in on doing more of the things that they wanted to do in life. We were all devastated and there was a huge void in Dad’s life. Fortunately, for all of us, he decided to really pursue the game of bridge that he loved so much and to try to become a “life master”, the highest level of the sport, in the shortest possible time. That’s where he met Dottie Wilmot who only a few years earlier had lost her husband Bill after a long illness. They were so compatible, shared the same interests. In 1992, they married and have enjoyed a wonderful life together building a house in Florida, playing bridge, finding new friendships while remaining the focal point of our great family. In fact, today it is hard to think of Dad’s life as having been complete with out Dot having been in it. Dot, on behalf of the whole family, I want to say thank you for all happiness that you brought Dad these past 16 years and for taking care of him so well in his last months. We are so thankful that he had you to share this time together and so proud to have you as part of our family. Much love to you Dot.

Finally, I want to comment on the way he handled his exit from this world. I had always considered Dad as somewhat of a hypochondriac and he certainly had an aversion to hospitals and anyone with an illness. So, as he grew ill, we were most fearful for how he would be able to handle his deteriorating condition. Yet, as he grew weaker and he faced the most difficult time, he stood the tallest and shined to me as never before. His big heart took over and as new caretakers would come on the scene, to the extent that he could, he found himself engaging with them, learning their life’s story and being concerned with their life issues, not just dwelling on his own problems. To the end, he maintained great personal dignity, a sense of humor and a loving interest in others. I was so proud of him!

Dad was truly blessed to have had such a wonderful life and we were truly blessed to have him with us for so long. We thank God for that and we will miss him greatly. Bon Voyage Dad!