If you'll be attending the Memorial Service in person, at 2 pm, Saturday, May 8, 2021, at First United Methodist Church, O'Fallon, please click here to pre-register .

Andrew A. Allan, Jr., 82, died on Feb. 3, 2021 at the Colonnade Senior Living Facility in O'Fallon, Illinois.  Andy was born on Staten Island, New York.  Andy's father was a career Army man and Andy spent the year he was ten years old in the Philippines. An outstanding student, he graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in Brooklyn, New York in 1956. Four years later he graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering with an emphasis on Structural, Civil, and Mechanical Engineering. Both schools were all male at the time.

Andy was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Core program. His first Civil Engineering assignment was at the family housing construction office, managing the construction of 1414 housing units and the design of another 300 housing units at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota. (The contractor had absconded to Mexico with the money and the Air Force took over the job.) During his assignment at Grand Forks he accepted his Regular Air Force Commission and he also married Emily. Their first son was born in the base hospital.

Following a delay en route to attend Squadron Officers School in Alabama, Andy reported to the 3960 ^th Civil Engineering Squadron at Anderson AFB, Guam in January, 1966. While there he managed over 50 million dollars of construction projects to support B-52 operations in Southeast Asia.

In 1967 Andy resigned his commission and separated from active duty with the Air Force. He joined the Civil Service at Wright-Patterson AFB, in Ohio where he worked as an aircraft subsystems analyst for the Foreign Technology Division.  He worked in a large, tall building that had only one window in the whole place. He was unhappy working under those conditions. He needed blue sky and greenery, so he looked to transfer elsewhere on Wright Patterson. However, before his transfer he was sent to Israel for several weeks. A Russian plane had crashed, and a team was sent over to inspect the plane and to see what they could learn from it. The team had a lot of "hurry up and wait" time, so they did a lot of sightseeing and he went for a swim in the Sea of Galilee.

When he returned, Andy was assigned to the Headquarters Air Force Logistics Command at Wright Patterson working in the programs, requirements, and development divisions as well as the engineering operations division.  In 1973 he became the Deputy Base Civil Engineer at Wright Patterson. During this period his family grew by two more sons.

In 1975 and 76 Andy was one of the few civilians selected to attend the Air War College at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama and while there he obtained a Master's of Public Administration from Auburn University. His thesis was on Environmental Compliance Management. He returned to Wright- Patterson to his previous job.

The family moved to O'Fallon, Illinois, In Feb. 1978 where Andy began work as the Director of Engineering, Construction, and Environmental Planning at the headquarters of the Air Mobility Command at Scott AFB. This job involved Master planning for 13 major Air Force Bases. He retired from Civil Service in 1993.

Now, back to some second thoughts about leaving the Air Force. About a year after Andy resigned his commission, he was convinced to rejoin the Air Force as a Reservist and in 1967 he was assigned to the 907 ^th Civil Engineering Flight, Rickenbacker Air Force Base, Ohio, first as programming officer and in 1977, as Commander. In Feb. 1978, he was designated Mobilization Augmentee to the Base Civil Engineer at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. In 1984 he became Mobilization Augmentee to the Director of Engineering and Construction at Strategic Air Command headquarters at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. His training required the usual one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. He collected quite a few speeding tickets driving through the flat, open country between O'Fallon and Omaha.

His military awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Outstanding Unit Award,  Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon with five Service Stars, and the Armed Forces Reserves Medal with one hour-glass device. Andy retired from the Air Force in 1989 as a Colonel.

Andy began working for Sverdrup Facilities, Inc. in 1993. In 1969 he had become a Licensed Registered Professional Engineer in Ohio. He became licensed in Illinois as a requirement of working for Sverdrup. He was the resident field engineer for building the passenger terminal for Mid-America Airport in St. Clair Co.  He was also the resident engineer for the building of 798 units of housing at Patriots Landing Family Housing project next to Scott AFB. He left paid employment and retired from his multi-faceted Civil Engineering career in 2005.

Andy became a Master Gardener after taking the University of Illinois Master Gardener class in 2006. He loved working at the Henry White Experimental Farm near Millstadt, where he joined others in growing vegetables for the food pantries in Belleville and O'Fallon. He enjoyed interacting with the workers at the O'Fallon Food Pantry as he delivered the produce on Mondays and Thursdays in his little red truck.

In 1979 Andy bought a house that had an acre of ground. The first year he and his boys planted 30 trees. Not all survived of course. It was just as well, because the ones that did survive grew very big in the 40 years we lived there. Andy worked at his jobs many long and stressful hours. Walking around checking on his plants and working in his yard helped keep him sane. His blackberries, cherries, and other fruits helped feed (not intentionally) many birds and other animals.

Andy met Emily at her church in Moultrie, GA. on a rainy Sunday in 1960. He was a man of faith. He became a member of the O'Fallon First United Methodist Church after moving to O'Fallon in 1978. He was active in many areas of church life. He served several terms on the Board of Trustees. He taught an adult Sunday School class for a while. For many years he opened the main church doors on Sunday mornings, and opened the classroom doors before making the coffee in the big coffee pots and setting up for the Fellowship hour. He shopped for and helped cook and serve many Thanksgiving and Easter meals. After Fred Wiechert could no longer take the canned goods donations to the food pantry Andy took over that job. If he saw something that needed to be done around the Church, he did it.  Andy was generous with his time and money.

This doesn't fall under a church activity, but it is something of which Andy was very proud. From the time he was in college he was a regular blood donor for almost 60 years. His blood type was always in demand.

Andy donated his body to the St. Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis Missouri.

Andy was preceded in death by his parents Andrew and Rose, nee Dedek, Allan. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Emily, nee Schinkel, and three sons: Jonathan (Pam) Allan, Benjamin (Sophia) Allan and Daniel (Wendy) Allan. He has five grandchildren: Karis (Brady) Bates, Nathan (Courtney) Allan, Katherine, Sofia, and Nicholas Allan.

He is also survived by his sister, Evelyn G. Dalton, of Bethlehem, PA and niece, Ann L. Dalton, of Easton, PA., his brother, Robert T.  (Lucy) Allan, of Ormand Beach, FL and his nephew David R. Allan of Cape Cod, MA.

The family requests no flowers. Memorial donations may be given to the O'Fallon First United Methodist Church or the O'Fallon Food Pantry.

A Memorial Service will be held at the O'Fallon First United Methodist Church at 2 pm., Saturday, May 8, 2021, with the Rev. Don Long officiating. A live-stream of the service can be viewed on the church's Facebook page (O'Fallon First United Methodist Church) , and YouTube: (O'Fallon First United Methodist Church).