I am one of the Allen kids. I was the lucky one who got to be a part of both Don Allen's living and his dying. I saw it all - the good and the bad. A few months ago during one of my errand missions to the office when Dad could no longer walk that far, I came upon a photo that I had never seen before. A young Don Allen was holding my baby brother, Davey and sitting beside them was 2-year old me looking lovingly into my father's eyes. A lot of what I did for the rest of my life was living out that look. As anyone who knew Don Allen would attest, his expectations were always high, he freely admitted that they were higher still for his children. Perfection was the expectation. We were Allens and we knew from an early age what that entailed. Be honest - tell the truth even when you know you're in trouble because it will be far worse if you lie about it. That statement comes from personal knowledge. Be true to your word, that is all you will ever need to stand on. Work hard, just keep at it until you have mastered the task, no matter if you have the skills or training, if you have the desire you can do it. He may have eventually come to understand that this was not always true of me. But he never stopped pushing. Do the right thing. The right thing was drilled into the Allen kids from an early age. It is a mixture of honesty, hard work, and authenticity. There was no other version of our dad. He never smoothed his edges for the company he was keeping. If you knew him professionally or personally, he was the same. That is a dying breed. With his passing also goes his Popeye view of the world, "I am what I am" that would later become What you see is what you get. So as we all remember Don Allen today, may it be with his famous smile and a chuckle or two of our own. He was a man who lived his life as he ordained it to be and we all became better because of his presence in the world.
