Eighty-two years ago I was born in Chicago. Having attained the age of eighteen in June 1949, I heard Henry Poor shout to me across the Deerfield campus “Don’t forget to register for the draft,” which I did, hoping it would be lost between Deerfield and Buffalo, my hometown. It was not.
Five years later, after a gap year in Europe to meet many relatives and I earned a Bachelor of Arts from University of Buffalo, I was inducted into the U S Army, US 51337197. During my tour of duty I met and married Brigitte who has stayed with me for fifty-seven years (still counting). We moved to Buffalo along with her son from a previous marriage. From Buffalo, I entered University of Chicago Program in Hospital Administration and remained in line health administration about ten years, then moved to the Federal Government in a unit that checks quality of State surveys of health facilities funded by Medicare or Medicaid.
Retirement at age 69 in 2000 has been pleasant, as are my periodic visits to Deerfield for reunions. My health remains good and I am looking forward to participating in our 65th reunion one year hence in 2014.
In June 2012, I joined my brother John Robin Allen ’52 for his sixtieth reunion. Celebrating their sixty-fifth reunion were just three souls from the class of 1947. In 2014, we hope that a larger contingent from 1949 will have escaped the final rites and may join Brigitte and me for our sixty-fifth reunion.
David (Day) Allen ’49