Allan Cameron

1927 - 2020

August 14, 1927 - January 18, 2020 Allan was born in Chicago, and at age seven moved to his parents' hometown, Motherwell, Scotland, where he got an old-fashioned classical education. He spent four years as an intelligence specialist with the US Air Force in England, France and Germany, supporting the Berlin airlift. He returned to the U.S. to earn degrees in Art at the University of Wisconsin and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. Allan first worked in art studios and agencies doing advertising design, then as an art dealer with the Cowie Galleries. He earned a teaching credential at Cal State Los Angeles and worked as an art teacher at Bancroft Junior High School and Fairfax High School. He was the founding director of the Fairfax Visual Arts Magnet Center. Allan served on the Getty Museum Educational Advisory Committee and was a Facilitator at the opening of the Getty Center in Brentwood. He painted, drew and sculpted in acrylic, wood, metal and digital media. A talented calligrapher, he was the hand model for Anthony Hopkins' handwriting in the movie Amistad. He was particularly fond of creating playful poems with accompanying caricatures as gifts to friends. Allan was an athletic golfer and tennis player and was an instructor for Dale Carnegie Training and Arthur Murray Dance Studios. He was interested in communicating with everyone and described himself as a "foreign language junkie." He studied Italian, French, Greek, German, Spanish and Latin, and learned phrases in Korean, Chinese, Amharic, Japanese, Tagalog, Farsi, Hungarian, Hebrew, Gaelic, Welsh, Portuguese and Finnish. He is survived by his sister Margaret Ball and niece Sandra, of Enid, OK. A memorial service will occur via Zoom, at 2 pm PDT, Sunday, May 3. For an invitation, please contact dick.heiser@gmail.com.