Donald "Don" Allan

Don died in the loving arms of his wife while cuddled by his cat on July 4, 2024. Don and Bonnie’s deep love spanned more than 33 years of marriage. Their first date was a hike in the rain looking at mushrooms and watching wildlife while sharing life stories and discovering they shared a passion for wild places.

Don spent his childhood along the Fox River of Illinois, playing with frogs, ice-skating and water-skiing. After some years of urban adventures in college, sales and the army, he embarked on an outdoor adventure to Alaska that included driving the ALCAN highway, followed by a period of living in a tent, spearing salmon in a creek for his meals. While hiking trails out of Juneau, Don developed a great love of mountains. With Bonnie he explored many wild places in Florida, Minnesota and throughout the US on many road-trips car-camping and hiking. Don’s dream was to retire with Bonnie to a cabin in mountain woods, a dream stolen by dementia which took his intellect but not his love, his kindness, his smile.

As a friend once said, Don “wore many hats,” which was true both literally and figuratively. For most of his life Don earned his living as a small businessman. He dropped out of the University of Chicago to work for the National Newspaper Syndicate, travelling the country calling on editors and publishers of the nation’s largest newspapers. His honesty and sincerity later led to other work in sales, including of insurance and annuities for educators, as well as house-painting and realty. He also volunteered for the Army during the Vietnam war, serving as an Information Specialist. But these pursuits were not Don’s primary interests.

What captivated Don was Western metaphysics. He became a scholar of the existential philosophy of Heidegger, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, eventually earning two masters degrees related to this interest. He shared his ideas with others, as a public speaker for Unitarian Universalist fellowships, societies of humanists and atheists, and as a philosophy instructor at Inver Hills Community College. Don loved to introduce provocative ideas, then encourage audience discussion.

Through all his many pursuits, Don’s core identity was as a writer, and he was proud of the book he wrote, Laughing at the Abyss, which was his thesis for the Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing that he earned from Hamline University. In his book, Don combined his personal psychological journey with philosophical and psychological reasoning.

What mattered most to Don was sharing deep feelings with others. As he wrote in his book “I offer my story to others in the hope that they might feel more deeply connected with me. And I hope my sharing will induce them to share of themselves.” Throughout his adult life, Don explored various forms of depth psychology as he strove to understand himself, relieve psychological pain and grapple with the meaning of life. As he explored his innermost feelings, Don guided others to explore theirs, by leading men’s groups in co-counselling and Unitarian Universalist communities and serving as a therapist-in-training in a 40-day depth-psychology retreat after gaining deep insights into himself by attending multiple such retreats as a participant. Don also formed close friendships, and he and Bonnie regarded two of their closest friends as part of the family.

Despite all his deep thinking, Don was also silly, fun and an animal lover who trained wild squirrels and chipmunks to take food from his hand and even sit on his knee. He liked to feed the family iguana veggie-patty treats that dropped from his plate and built elaborate ramps and ceiling walkways for his cat on the porch where they cuddled for hours as he read.

Don spent his final years at the Minnesota Veterans Home – Minneapolis, where he reconnected with his identity as one who served his country, shared his kindness and loving smile with staff and residents, enjoyed wheel-chair walks around Minnehaha Park, and shared in the unconditional love he and his wife forged together.

Don will be deeply missed by his wife; his brother-in-law Jim; his nephew Braden; his sister-in-friendship Catherine; brother-in-friendship Steve and dear friends. 

A Celebration of Life will be held at 10:30 am on July 20 at Pilgrim House Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1212 Hwy 96 W, Arden Hills, MN 55112.  Refreshments and fellowship will follow.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the Minnesota Veterans Home-Minneapolis Family Council,5101 Minnehaha Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55417.