ALLEN, John M.

Arizona Silver Belt, Globe, AZ Wednesday, June 08, 2011 John M. Allen On Friday, May 27, 2011, of this past Memorial Day weekend, the world lost John M. Allen, 91, another of the veterans of WWII and Korea whose life made the world a better place. He laughed and joked with family and friends in his last few days, and then slipped away quietly and peacefully, surrounded by loved ones in his bedroom of the house he built overlooking the little valley of mining communities where he was born and raised. Born in Miami in December, 1919, he attended local schools and graduated from Miami High School in 1937. After a brief period at the University of Arizona, in those Depression years, he returned to Miami to work at his father’s garage for a time and then went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado State University in 1943, where he also met and married his wife, Irene, in February, 1944. Shortly thereafter, he shipped off to the European theater where he served as a forward artillery observer, which provided him with stories to relate in his later years, although only occasionally of the incidents where he was twice decorated with the Bronze Star with the “V” for valor for his gallantry under fire. He was also among the first to liberate the Dachau concentration camp, which gave him memories he refused to discuss. After the close of the war, he returned to his wife in Colorado and worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a geologist and soils scientist. He worked in various towns around Colorado until July, 1950, when he was reactivated for Korea where he served in military intelligence. With the conclusion of armed conflict there, he again returned to his wife in Colorado and his job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thereafter, he lived and worked in Oklahoma, Kansas, Connecticut, Oregon, and some brief consulting stints in Europe and the Middle East, frequently returning to the local tri-city area to visit his mother and sister, Ruth Allen, an iconic elementary school teacher for many, many years here locally. John and Irene moved from their long time home in Beaverton, Ore., in 2002 to the house he had built here in Globe. He was devoted to his wife until her death in June, 2007. He is survived by his two sons, John B. and David M., and two grandchildren, one great-grandson, and numerous close, although mostly younger, friends. John M. Allen’s positive energy, quiet confidence and yet enduring humility and humor endeared him to all. He is and will remain, deeply missed. In lieu of flowers, donations to charities or weepy graveside memorials, John would love it if those who knew him would simply offer up a toast to his life and wish him well in this, his next chapter. Funeral arrangements for John M. Allen were entrusted to Miles Funeral Services Globe.