Thomas Elliot Allen will be deeply missed. He died after a brief illness, in peace at his home. He was 86. With his dear wife, Page Platt Allen, he was a resident of Santa Fe since 1990. He was a founding and faithful member of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, a steady teammate on the tennis courts of the Sangre de Christo Racquet Club, and a lover of the mountains, skiing in winter or walking in summer. Tom was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1922, to Amiriah [sic, recte Amariah] and Esther Allen, the fourth of five brothers. He attended the Elgin Academy in Elgin, Ill. He graduated form Princeton University in 1944 with a degree in chemistry, completing a three-year accelerated World War II program. Beginning in November of 1944, he served as an enlisted infantryman in the 4th Infantry Division, European Theater, and participated in campaigns in the Hertgen Forest; the Battle of the Bulge, for which he received the Bronze Star for Valor with Oak Cluster; and across Europe. He was in the advanced guard that first entered the gates of the Prison Camp at Dachau. Following the liberation of Dachau, he was sent to Officer Training School and became a second lieutenant with the intention of parachuting into Burma to assist with the war effort in China. After World War II, Tom worked in Chicago for an international mineral and chemical company. On a brief skiing vacation in Aspen, Colo., he met Ann Page Platt on top of Ajax Mountain. They married July 1, 1950, in Philadelphia. They shared a long and deeply loving marriage. Tom worked in the field of international fertilizer plant development, first in the Chicago area and then in New Canaan, Conn. In 1968, he joined the family real estate firm of A.L. Allen & Sons in Geneva, Ill., and worked on housing development, particularly low-income and clustered land use projects. Since moving to New Mexico, he worked closely with holy Trinity Orthodox Church, in the building of the church as community and sanctuary and of their skeet retreat above Abiqui, N.M. He was a visionary and deeply spiritual man, who never ceased to seek the higher purpose and moral ground of life, while deeply enjoying the physical, loving and daily realities. His special enjoyments were his garden, which flowered abundantly, tennis, skiing, and singing. Daily reading of the Bible and the newspapers were equal rituals for him. Tom Allen has touched so many lives with his loyalty, his humor and his questioning mind. Truly, he "dreamed the impossible dream." He is survived by his dearest wife of 57 years, Page Platt Allen, as well as by four of their five children, Page Allen Owings of Santa Fe, Sam Wilder Allen of Boulder, Colo., Abigail Brewster Allen of Santa Fe, and Polly Allen Robbins of Portland, Ore. His son, James Elliot Allen, died in 1981 in Illinois. He is also survived by his sons-in-law, Nathaniel Otis Owings of Santa Fe and James Robbins of Portland; his daughter-in-law, Mary Bowditch Allen; grandchildren, Maya Jehan Owings of Oakland, Calif., Sophie Page Allen, Emily Dodge Allen, and Henry Wilder Allen of Boulder, Madison Page Robbins and James Davis Robbins of Portland; as well as by his first great-grandson, Otis Owings Ranahan; a brother, Douglas Stuart Allen of Dourdon, France; and by many loving nieces and nephews. Funeral services were held at the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Santa Fe, N.M. A private committal service will be held at the West Batavia Cemetery in Batavia, Ill. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made in Tom's name to the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, 231 E. Cordova Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505. For information, Moss family Funeral Home, Batavia, 630-879-7900 or www.mossfuneral.com.

[Published in The Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), Wednesday, January 7, 2009]