Carl Allen, ’14, oldest alumnus, dies at 108

Carl Allen CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO/THOM KENDALL

he University's oldest alumnus, Carl Allen, Class of 1914, died Dec. 8 in his sleep at a continuing care facility in Westborough. He was 108.

     Born, raised and educated in Holyoke, he majored in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Agricultural College before taking a job in Vancouver with General Chemical Co., now a division of Honeywell.

     During World War I, he worked in a lab that disarmed unexploded bombs and tested German nerve gas variants in France. Two years ago, he received France's highest award, the Legion of Honor, in recognition of his wartime service.

     He retired for the first time in 1958 and proceeded to work as an economic development specialist for the Virginia Division of Industrial Development in Richmond until 1964.

     For the next eight years, he volunteered for the Service Corps of Retired Executives in Richmond, Va. He and his wife of 52 years, Ruth Allen, moved to Framingham in 1972, where he focused on his other two loves, golf and the Red Sox.

     After giving up golf in his 90s because he could no longer see his ball land, he continued to work out at a gym, and after age 100, he learned to use a computer and began actively corresponding by e-mail.

     He leaves a son, Carl of Basking Ridge, N.J; two daughters, Nancy Bond of Carrollton, Texas, and Judy Staver of Jacksonville, Fla.; 15 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren.