Necrology

John Frederick Allen '60

Nov. 22, 1937-Sep. 1, 2021

John Frederick Allen ’60 died on Sept. 1, 2021, at Calvary Hospital located in the Bronx, N.Y. The cause was prostate cancer. Born on Nov. 22, 1937, in Orange, N.J., John was raised in nearby Springfield and came to Hamilton from the Pingry School. 

John was a member of Delta Phi fraternity and majored in economics. During his time on the Hill, he was a correspondent for The Spectator and a member of the International Relations, French, and Young Republican clubs. In the Student Senate he participated in the implementation of total opportunity for fraternity rushing and served as chairman of the calendar, student guide, and student admissions committees. During the second semester of his junior and senior years, he was a resident advisor in the newly built Dunham dorm. Upon graduating, rather than attending Cornell University to study law, despite his early admission to the school, John followed Professor Sidney Wertimer’s advice and became a trainee at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Over the next eight years, he advanced through several of the Fed’s departments before being promoted to personnel manager in 1968. In 1962, he married Barbara Jacobsen and also enlisted in the Army Reserve. He earned a master’s of business administration in banking and finance from the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration in 1966.

In 1969, John left the Federal Reserve and joined Charter New York Corp., parent of Irving Trust Co. He prepared bank acquisition applications, including one for the purchase of the Hayes National Bank in Clinton N.Y., served as corporate secretary, and became vice president of employee benefits at Irving Trust. 

In 1981, John and Barbara divorced. In 1989, he met Elva Elizabeth “Beth” Allen (no known relation), a cookbook producer from Houston. They married in May of the same year. 

 Between 1985 and his retirement in 2005, John served as a benefits consultant at Johnson & Higgins, an insurance brokerage firm; as associate director for benefits at New York University’s Medical Center in Manhattan; and as benefits director at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. After retiring, he consulted for a couple of years at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., ending the association in 2007.

John was devoted to Hamilton, and he became a dedicated and ubiquitous presence at Hamilton functions in New York City. A conscientious supporter of the Annual Fund, he and Beth established three charitable gift annuities to fund scholarships. They were Continuous Continentals and members of the 1812 Leadership Circle as well as Joel Bristol Associates. He and Beth were profiled for their financial support in the Winter-Spring 2016 issue of the Hamilton Alumni Review.

Beginning in spring 2012, John became co-president of the College’s Metropolitan New York City Alumni Association. For six years in that capacity, he said he “thoroughly enjoyed chaperoning young imbibing grads at forgettable venues, conversing with distinguished and not-so-renowned alums, conferring with faculty and administrators as well as cavorting with a diverse group of mostly enlightened, ethical, erudite, and entertaining Kirkland and Hamilton women and men.” In the winter of that same year, John also became the 1960 class correspondent for the Hamilton Alumni Review.

After the opening of the High Line, the urban walking trail created on a former elevated freight line along New York’s West Side, John began conducting tours both for New York City and for Hamilton, and an Allen-led tour became a regular fixture of Hamilton gatherings in the city for alumni, parents, and friends. The now-extended High Line is today purportedly the most popular tourist attraction in New York City, and for hundreds of members of the Hamilton community, their first experience with it was in the company of John Allen.

John participated on the 50th, 55th, and 60th reunion class committees. At his 55th reunion in June 2015, he was selected as the 1960 alumni class president. At the winter meeting of the Alumni Council in New York City in 2016, he was presented a College Key Award in recognition of his service to and passion for Hamilton. His devotion to the College was also demonstrated by his creation of such whimsical alumni activities as the Hamilton College Haberdashery Challenge announced in the Spring 2015 edition of the Hamilton Alumni Review.

In the fall of 2019, John learned to his astonishment that he had been selected as winner of the prestigious Bell Ringer Award, given to him as a proclamation at his virtual 60th reunion in June 2020 by the president of the Alumni Association. The award presentation drew attention to his many services to the College: as campaign volunteer and class agent, as top prospect volunteer for the Annual Fund, as a Career Center volunteer, class correspondent, and reunion gift chair, among other contributions of time and energy. His lifetime regret, he said, was that he never truly got to Know Thyself.

John F. Allen is survived by his wife and his identical twin brother, James Victor Allen ’60, P’93, and his niece, Jessica Cormack Allen ’93.

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