Allan R. Talbot

Allan R. Talbot died at his residence in New York City on Friday, January 19-his 90th birthday-after a short illness. Mr. Talbot spent a career in urban planning starting as a mayoral aide in New Haven, CT, in the early 1960s. Over his 40-year career he worked at government agencies, nonprofit, and as a self-employed consultant on real estate development matters.
He was the author of two nonfiction books: "The Mayor's Game" about the New Haven mayoralty of Richard C. Lee in the 1950s and 1960s, when federal programs redeveloped urban areas; and "Power Along the Hudson," a 1973 book about environmental groups' successful efforts to stop a pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant from being built at Storm King Mountain.
He was born on January 19, 1934, to John and Ada Talbot, recent immigrants from London who raised him in Queens, NY. He often spoke admiringly of his father's work as a construction "sandhog" who built the Queens Midtown Tunnel and other major tunnels, dams, and bridge footings in the 1930s through 1950s.
After one year at Cornell University, where he played clarinet in a dance band, he served in the U.S. Army as a disk jockey in Frankfurt, Germany, in the mid-1950s. Upon his return he completed his studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he met Elizabeth Speakman in a library study room.
They married, had two children, and lived in White Plains, NY, from 1968 to 1976. After their separation, he moved to New York City, where he would live from 1976 until his death. His first two marriages ended in divorce. His third wife, Judith Goldring, died in 2016.
In retirement he enjoyed biking, gardening, playing the piano and traveling. During the pandemic, he authored "Putting Out the Paper," a fictionalized account of newspaper union and boardroom battles in the 1980s. The novel was inspired by his work for the New York Daily News during that period, when he helped the newspaper get zoning approvals for a new printing plant in Brooklyn.
Through the last months of his life, he proudly shared regular text-message updates on "Putting Out the Paper" with family and friends, enjoyed banter on political and other topics with his grandchildren and other family members and friends, and made regular trips to the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet.
Mr. Talbot is survived by a daughter, Katharine Talbot Fitzgerald, of Westford, MA; son David Talbot of Reading, MA; brother Ralph Talbot of Westmont, NJ; sister Alice Talbot of Santa Cruz, CA; grandchildren William Fitzgerald and Nathaniel, Alexander, and Cordelia Talbot; niece JoAnne Curley and nephew Brian Talbot; and nephew Steven and niece Ruth Talbot.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Visiting Nurse Service (Giving - VNS Health) or the Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a north Bronx community development organization Mr. Talbot helped create in the 1980s as an arm of Montefiore Medical Center (Get Involved | MPC (mpcbronx.org)).
Mr. Talbot's remains were donated to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx for use in medical education. Services will be private.