Donald Allen

Eulogy for Donald Thomas Allen

Donald Thomas Allen, 72, of Glendora passed away on March 12, 2025.

He was born on April 2, 1952, in Montreal, Canada and moved at 11 months old to Covina with his parents, Thomas Allen and Shirley Henthorn. Don will be remembered as a kind person who cared deeply about people being treated with compassion and fairness.

Growing up in Covina, Don was an avid Dodgers and Kings fan. Don had a great time working as an English as a Second Language teacher in Japan for two years in the 80's. He had to return to LA because he was missing lots of games that were not broadcast in Japan. Don worked more than 5 years as a teaching assistant at the English Department of Cal State LA where many of his students excelled academically with Don's help and coaching in English composition. One of his students liked Don so much and was determined to find him a good wife. So three blind dates were set up in three years for Don. Third time's a charm and that's how Don met his wife, Jodie Chang in May 1998, and they married in December 1998. Although he had no kids of his own, Don adored his nephews and nieces from the Allen's family and from Jodie's family. For four years, he would happily and dutifully take Jodie's two Taiwanese teenage nephews boarding at their house to a local high school, dropping them off at basketball practices and games, and taking them to his beloved Dodgers games and Springsteen concerts. He loved them as his own kids.

After high school, Don worked many odd jobs supporting himself to attend junior college and that was when he met some of his lifelong good friends. Friendship extended to old age as they enjoyed their annual meets at the race track, concerts, or bike trips to Europe. Friends he met at the race track fueled him with energy for his never ending brain work on thoroughbred horse race research and handicapping. For 10 years, he was a regular guest on the Sunday Track Site horse race Radio show with Roger Stein where Don would give out his best picks of the horses to bet on for the day. He diligently did his research with a set of his own handicapping strategies which he shared on several handicapping seminars organized and co hosted with friends. He loved to pick out potential long shots which earned him the nickname of " Prince of Price" among friends and fans. His friends said that he was always pleasantly and generously sharing his best picks upon being asked. Don said more than one time that he was blessed to be good at numbers and statistics, and he was able to use those skills to bet on horses and play fantasy baseball games, which gave him lots of joy in life.

Being the only boy in a busy house with 4 younger sisters, Don said that listening to the radio broadcast of baseball games and music was a great haven to shut out the noise from the silly young girls. He thought he was the only older and mature kid under the same roof! He soaked up what was on the AM radio and kept hundreds of LP records from the late 60's up to the 80's.

Upon his semi-retirement at the age of 70, he indulged himself with watching YouTuber, Rick Beato's channel because of Rick's enthusiasm and joy for music as well as Rick's inspiring analysis and critique of mostly rock and roll music and instrument. In fall 2023, Don started hatching the idea of having his own podcast channel to talk about his own views on rock and roll music. His research on getting the hardware set up and planning for topics on different artists and catalogs of songs were gradually on the way. This action of Don's reflects the title of a book he kept on his iPhone, On Not Being Someone Else by Andrew Miller, because while Don admired Rick Beato, at the same time, Don thought that he could showcase his own unique opinions about the same music.

About 3 years ago, Don woke up one morning and excitedly told Jodie about the wildest and happiest dream he just had. In that dream, he travelled around the world alone, meeting many new friends, and he encountered three joyful things in one amazing day. First, he met Babe Ruth at Fenway Park where he pitched to Babe Ruth who hit a home run. Next, he was invited by the famous Triple Crown winning jockey, Bill Shoemaker, at Churchill Downs for a photoshoot together with Shoemaker riding his beautiful Derby winning horse. By dusk, towards the end of that busy day, Don walked into a concert and was right away offered a front row seat at a music festival. Up on stage was Woody Guthrie singing oldie folk songs and he smiled eye-to-eye at Don at the same time. Don said, "Wow, this was such a pleasant dream to meet all my heroes and to do great things with them in one long travelling day. I did not get enough sleep at all. Gotta go catch some sleep and maybe meet more of my idols."

Dear Donald, we now see you walking into that same beautiful dream, meeting many more of your heroes. Let us say "rest in peace and joy in another good journey" with all the people you respected and admired in the past.

You brought a light to the lives of those who loved you that can never be replaced and you are deeply missed by your wife, four sisters, nephews and nieces, and many more relatives and friends. Good bye, Donald, good bye Dodge......... until we meet again!