Mr. William Robert Allen: Obituary
Obituaries May 1, 2015After battling with inoperable pancreatic cancer, Bill passed away peacefully at home. Bill was born and raised in Ottawa and graduated from Ottawa High School, a small town in Northern Illinois. Bill was a tackle on offensive and a middle lineman on defense — teammates and newspapers called him “The Monster”. Bill played four more years of football at Iowa State under Coach Clay Stapleton. He was honored with a watch in his senior year by the coach for “the athlete who gave so much, loved the game, and received so little recognition”.
Bill graduated in 1966 with an Electrical Engineering degree from Iowa State and went on to Cincinnati to work for Proctor and Gamble. He got his Masters at UW Oshkosh and a Doctor in business from UW-Madison. Bill was a professor at Illinois State in Bloomington and Eastern Illinois in Charleston, Illinois. Bill taught Quantitative Math courses to the business majors for 20 years. Students loved his classes. He was known for his engaging and animated lectures. He taught with no notes and was always using students and his family situations in his examples. Students, however, did not like his exams, because he did not allow calculators to help them solve the equations. He wanted students to understand the process. Bill got many letters from students after they graduated to thank him for his teaching method.
Bill was one of five siblings born to the late Otha and Marjorie Allen and was a beloved husband of Nancy Poundstone Allen for fifty-two years. One brother, Jim, passed away in 2012. Bill will be forever remembered by his other brother, Ed and his two loving sisters, Karen Hoffman and Pat Greenhalgh; beloved and loving children, Jason Allen, Cumming, Georgia and Wendy Sadeh, San Rafael, California; and treasured grandchildren, Tal, Alex and Toby; caring in-laws Ken, Dale, Gary, Bob and Catherine Poundstone and Judy Purcell, along with countless other friends, neighbors and family whom were blessed to know him.
Bill loved learning. He went back to school and got his PhD at age 46. In grade school he was a free thinker. At the early age of 12 he protested at school by climbing up the basketball pole and sitting in the basket until the principal came to order him down; he made his point. At age 16, he and his two brothers owned a gasoline station which allowed him the cash to buy his first car, a 1957 yellow and white Chevy Bel Air.
Bill tried his hand at writing and at a late date painting. He also enjoyed remodeling homes or adding a room or two. Of course his first love was golf and playing with his buddies in Illinois and in Big Canoe.
Bill touched the lives of many students, family, and friends with his smile, generosity, and sense of humor all the way to the end. He will be dearly missed.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to
Big Canoe Animal Rescue
10676 Big Canoe
Big Canoe, GA 30143
email:[email protected]
Big Canoe Emergency Response Team
To contact BCERT, send e-mail to Marsha Rhodus, or call her at 706-268-1559.