1967

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Daniel Richards Allen MBA ’67 passed away on August 2, 2011 of multiple myeloma cancer and liver problems at the age of 79 years old in Payson, Utah. Allen was born to J. Knight & Alice R. Allen on 29 Dec 1931 in Salt Lake City. He grew up in Palo Alto. He enjoyed stamp collecting and pole vaulting, and he set some California state pole vaulting records in high school. After graduating from Palo Alto High School, he served a mission for the LDS Church in Argentina in the years 1954-1957. His time in Argentina was one of the greatest experiences of his life, which he talked about frequently. After his mission, he graduated from Stanford University where his father taught. Allen’s degree was in Mechanical Engineering. He married the love of his life, Elizabeth Stewart Van Wagoner, in the Salt Lake Temple in 1957. They promptly moved to Cincinnati, as he took a job with the Public Health Service. Their son, Daniel Knight Allen, was born there in 1959. They returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and their daughter, Laura Elizabeth Allen, was born in 1961, right after they moved into their first home in Sunnyvale. Through the years he worked for Varian Associates, Lockheed Missiles & Space, and the County of Santa Clara. He also earned an MBA degree from Santa Clara University. In 1969 he took a job in Lima, Peru teaching business math at a branch of Stanford University. The family greatly enjoyed the four-month adventure. He retired in 1982. In 1988, they moved to Paradise, Calif., where they enjoyed a quieter life for nine years until his wife, Betsy, died of cancer in 1997. He continued living there until days before his passing when he moved to Spring Lake to live with his son’s family. Allen was active in the LDS Church throughout his life, and served for decades at a time as Ward or Stake Financial Clerk, as well as being a Sunday School President, and a home teacher. He was a detail oriented man. He loved his cars and loved to drive throughout the western states. A 700-mile drive was nothing to him. He drove part way to Utah just 11 days before his passing in his 1998 Toyota Avalon that he drove 357,551 miles! He also enjoyed photography. In 2006, he went back to Argentina with his son. That was a trip to remember! Daniel Richards Allen is survived by his son and daughter and their families: Dan & Beth Allen of Spring Lake, Utah, and Laura & Woody Edvalson of Bonney Lake, Wash., and his nine grandchildren and one great-grandson. He also leaves a brother, Thomas Knight Allen, of Issaquah, Wash., and a sister Irene Jensen, of Salt Lake City, and her three children.

08 Nov 2018