Col. Christopher James Allaire, US Army Retired

Chris died in Olympia, Washington at the age of 91. He was born and grew up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and graduated from Wareham High School in 1952. He was accepted to the US Military Academy at West Point, and he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1956. He married Nancy Gerke on December 8, 1956 in Towson, Maryland. He served 27 years in the Army Corps of Engineers. His overseas assignments included two tours in Germany, first in Munich, then in Bamberg and Kaiserslautern. He also had a short joint assignment with the Navy in the Antarctic and went to Vietnam in 1968, serving as G5 for the 101st Airborne Division. His last tours were in Washington State, serving as District Engineer in Walla Walla, and as Facility Engineer at Fort Lewis. He retired in 1983.

After his retirement from the Army, he then took a position teaching Engineering at Saint Martin's College; he was honored to be selected as a member of the Society of Fellows, and to be given the title of Professor Emeritus when he retired in 1996.

His recreation was centered around training yellow labradors in competing and retriever field trials. Most of his dogs got their field championships in both the US and Canada. He also judged many competitions.

After retiring from Saint Martin's, he and Nancy wintered in Brawley, California, and did his winter training with his dogs. They attended All Saints' Episcopal Church, and later Westmoreland Community Presbyterian Church.

Chris was always active in his church. While at Fort Lewis, having been licensed as a lay reader by the Bishop of the Armed Forces, he led morning prayer services when an Episcopal chaplain was not available. In Olympia, he served on the jail ministry team and helped with the Olympia Union Gospel Mission. Chris loved to sing, and although, in his last couple of years, Alzheimer's was stealing his memory, he remembered the words to many songs; he walked about singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. His recent favorite was, "The King Is Coming", and he sang, "The King is coming, the King is coming, praise God, He's coming for me." And King Jesus did, in fact, come for Chris.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and children Christopher, Jr., Judith Lynn (Des Harnais), and Andrew John Allaire, 7 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren.

Services will be held at Christ Our Hope Anglican Church, located at the corner of 8th Ave SE and Jefferson St SE on Saturday, May 24th at 2 PM. Burial will be on May 27th at 11:30 AM at Tahoma National Cemetery, 18600 SE 240th St, Kent, Washington. It is recommended that you arrive there by 11:15. Volunteer Staff at the entrance will direct you from there.