ERNEST ALLEN JR. 1923-2007
Ex-TCU professor loved arts and travel
He loved La Boheme.
And speaking French and German.
And lavishing guests at parties, replete with tamales and mariachis, at his home overlooking Westover Hills.
And spending summers in Beaulieu.
And fawning over his miniature schnauzer, Maggie.
If Fort Worth's growth as a cultural center is due to individual passions, then it has lost a guiding light in Ernest Allen Jr. He died of heart failure Thursday at 84.
A lifelong Fort Worth resident, Mr. Allen was born Dec. 3, 1923. In World War II, he was a combat interpreter in France and Germany. He took over his father's business, Ernest Allen Motor Company, and was president from 1955 until his retirement, in 1969. He was even a descendant of two pioneering families of White Settlement, the Allens and the Farmers.
"Running the motor company was not his thing. Ranching was not his thing. Those were his father's things," said cousin Jane Hancock Thau of St. Simons Island, Ga., his closest living relative. "Ernest was an artistic, creative person with an incredible mind. He was very bored with business. He did what he had to do as president."
In the arts -- particularly Fort Worth arts -- Mr. Allen, with his global perspective, shone.
"He loved Verdi and Puccini -- a real connoisseur of opera," Thau said. "He loved teaching, meeting people, speaking foreign languages, traveling and art."
Mr. Allen resurrected the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 1957, serving as its first president after a shutdown during World War II. From 1970 to 1980 he was a vice president and chairman of the production committee of the Fort Worth Opera Association. He devised transcripts to help English-speaking performers with French roles. He was also on the board of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
As an educator, he taught language at Texas Christian University from 1973 to 1991. While he was director of the university's American program with the Carl Duisberg Society of Cologne, Germany, more than 200 German students attended TCU. After spending his summers in south France, making recordings of people in the streets, he would revise his curriculum each year to keep his French classes current.
After an accident in 1976, Mr. Allen suffered a series of physical ailments. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis seven years ago and could not walk the last four years of his life.
SERVICES
Mr. Allen's body will lie in state from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home.
A requiem Eucharist will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday at All Saints' Episcopal Church. Interment will be at Mt. Olivet.
Send memorial gifts to the Bryson Club Scholarship Fund at TCU, The Van Cliburn Foundation, the Fort Worth Opera or the Fort Worth Symphony.
BRYON OKADA, 817-390-7752
[email protected]
Ex-TCU professor loved arts and travel
He loved La Boheme.
And speaking French and German.
And lavishing guests at parties, replete with tamales and mariachis, at his home overlooking Westover Hills.
And spending summers in Beaulieu.
And fawning over his miniature schnauzer, Maggie.
If Fort Worth's growth as a cultural center is due to individual passions, then it has lost a guiding light in Ernest Allen Jr. He died of heart failure Thursday at 84.
A lifelong Fort Worth resident, Mr. Allen was born Dec. 3, 1923. In World War II, he was a combat interpreter in France and Germany. He took over his father's business, Ernest Allen Motor Company, and was president from 1955 until his retirement, in 1969. He was even a descendant of two pioneering families of White Settlement, the Allens and the Farmers.
"Running the motor company was not his thing. Ranching was not his thing. Those were his father's things," said cousin Jane Hancock Thau of St. Simons Island, Ga., his closest living relative. "Ernest was an artistic, creative person with an incredible mind. He was very bored with business. He did what he had to do as president."
In the arts -- particularly Fort Worth arts -- Mr. Allen, with his global perspective, shone.
"He loved Verdi and Puccini -- a real connoisseur of opera," Thau said. "He loved teaching, meeting people, speaking foreign languages, traveling and art."
Mr. Allen resurrected the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 1957, serving as its first president after a shutdown during World War II. From 1970 to 1980 he was a vice president and chairman of the production committee of the Fort Worth Opera Association. He devised transcripts to help English-speaking performers with French roles. He was also on the board of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
As an educator, he taught language at Texas Christian University from 1973 to 1991. While he was director of the university's American program with the Carl Duisberg Society of Cologne, Germany, more than 200 German students attended TCU. After spending his summers in south France, making recordings of people in the streets, he would revise his curriculum each year to keep his French classes current.
After an accident in 1976, Mr. Allen suffered a series of physical ailments. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis seven years ago and could not walk the last four years of his life.
SERVICES
Mr. Allen's body will lie in state from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home.
A requiem Eucharist will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday at All Saints' Episcopal Church. Interment will be at Mt. Olivet.
Send memorial gifts to the Bryson Club Scholarship Fund at TCU, The Van Cliburn Foundation, the Fort Worth Opera or the Fort Worth Symphony.
BRYON OKADA, 817-390-7752
[email protected]
ERNEST ALLEN JR. 1923-2007
Ex-TCU professor loved arts and travel
He loved La Boheme.
And speaking French and German.
And lavishing guests at parties, replete with tamales and mariachis, at his home overlooking Westover Hills.
And spending summers in Beaulieu.
And fawning over his miniature schnauzer, Maggie.
If Fort Worth's growth as a cultural center is due to individual passions, then it has lost a guiding light in Ernest Allen Jr. He died of heart failure Thursday at 84.
A lifelong Fort Worth resident, Mr. Allen was born Dec. 3, 1923. In World War II, he was a combat interpreter in France and Germany. He took over his father's business, Ernest Allen Motor Company, and was president from 1955 until his retirement, in 1969. He was even a descendant of two pioneering families of White Settlement, the Allens and the Farmers.
"Running the motor company was not his thing. Ranching was not his thing. Those were his father's things," said cousin Jane Hancock Thau of St. Simons Island, Ga., his closest living relative. "Ernest was an artistic, creative person with an incredible mind. He was very bored with business. He did what he had to do as president."
In the arts -- particularly Fort Worth arts -- Mr. Allen, with his global perspective, shone.
"He loved Verdi and Puccini -- a real connoisseur of opera," Thau said. "He loved teaching, meeting people, speaking foreign languages, traveling and art."
Mr. Allen resurrected the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 1957, serving as its first president after a shutdown during World War II. From 1970 to 1980 he was a vice president and chairman of the production committee of the Fort Worth Opera Association. He devised transcripts to help English-speaking performers with French roles. He was also on the board of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
As an educator, he taught language at Texas Christian University from 1973 to 1991. While he was director of the university's American program with the Carl Duisberg Society of Cologne, Germany, more than 200 German students attended TCU. After spending his summers in south France, making recordings of people in the streets, he would revise his curriculum each year to keep his French classes current.
After an accident in 1976, Mr. Allen suffered a series of physical ailments. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis seven years ago and could not walk the last four years of his life.
SERVICES
Mr. Allen's body will lie in state from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home.
A requiem Eucharist will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday at All Saints' Episcopal Church. Interment will be at Mt. Olivet.
Send memorial gifts to the Bryson Club Scholarship Fund at TCU, The Van Cliburn Foundation, the Fort Worth Opera or the Fort Worth Symphony.
BRYON OKADA, 817-390-7752
[email protected]
Ex-TCU professor loved arts and travel
He loved La Boheme.
And speaking French and German.
And lavishing guests at parties, replete with tamales and mariachis, at his home overlooking Westover Hills.
And spending summers in Beaulieu.
And fawning over his miniature schnauzer, Maggie.
If Fort Worth's growth as a cultural center is due to individual passions, then it has lost a guiding light in Ernest Allen Jr. He died of heart failure Thursday at 84.
A lifelong Fort Worth resident, Mr. Allen was born Dec. 3, 1923. In World War II, he was a combat interpreter in France and Germany. He took over his father's business, Ernest Allen Motor Company, and was president from 1955 until his retirement, in 1969. He was even a descendant of two pioneering families of White Settlement, the Allens and the Farmers.
"Running the motor company was not his thing. Ranching was not his thing. Those were his father's things," said cousin Jane Hancock Thau of St. Simons Island, Ga., his closest living relative. "Ernest was an artistic, creative person with an incredible mind. He was very bored with business. He did what he had to do as president."
In the arts -- particularly Fort Worth arts -- Mr. Allen, with his global perspective, shone.
"He loved Verdi and Puccini -- a real connoisseur of opera," Thau said. "He loved teaching, meeting people, speaking foreign languages, traveling and art."
Mr. Allen resurrected the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 1957, serving as its first president after a shutdown during World War II. From 1970 to 1980 he was a vice president and chairman of the production committee of the Fort Worth Opera Association. He devised transcripts to help English-speaking performers with French roles. He was also on the board of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
As an educator, he taught language at Texas Christian University from 1973 to 1991. While he was director of the university's American program with the Carl Duisberg Society of Cologne, Germany, more than 200 German students attended TCU. After spending his summers in south France, making recordings of people in the streets, he would revise his curriculum each year to keep his French classes current.
After an accident in 1976, Mr. Allen suffered a series of physical ailments. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis seven years ago and could not walk the last four years of his life.
SERVICES
Mr. Allen's body will lie in state from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home.
A requiem Eucharist will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday at All Saints' Episcopal Church. Interment will be at Mt. Olivet.
Send memorial gifts to the Bryson Club Scholarship Fund at TCU, The Van Cliburn Foundation, the Fort Worth Opera or the Fort Worth Symphony.
BRYON OKADA, 817-390-7752
[email protected]
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