John Allensworth

John Allensworth, age 83, passed away on May 9, 2025, at his home in Atlanta from acute leukemia, a disease with no cure for the elderly. He was born to A.E. Allensworth and Evelyn (Shuman) Allensworth in Paulding, Ohio on September 30, 1941.

John lived a life full of adventure. He enjoyed traveling, exploring, and teaching others about the exciting, diverse and wonderful world in which we live. John graduated from Paulding High School in 1959 and attended Kent State University, receiving a Bachelors' degree in social studies and a PhD in geography.

John and his wife Diane joined the Peace Corps as volunteers in Panama from 1962 to 1964. He taught social studies at Blue Creek local school from 1964 to 1966. Because John had teaching experience, he was asked, even before he received his PhD, to complete the semester course of a geography professor who unexpectedly died mid-semester. Subsequently, that fall, John was hired full time to continue teaching a variety of geography classes at the Trumbull branch of Kent State University. Not only did John provide leadership for faculty at the branch campus, he also initiated a variety of student and faculty tours throughout the U.S. and abroad for both students and adults in the community.

After teaching geography at Kent State for approximately twenty years, John took an eight-year leave of absence to work in industrial management, implementing quality assurance and statistical quality control at a variety of factories across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Denmark. John was also the principal instructor for the factory workers, as well as for the new employees at this consulting company. John's travel each week were extensive, averaging 150 flights a year visiting to teach both statistical and management skills at paper plants, steel mills, auto parts plants, metal can & stamping operations.

When John's father became ill, John went to work for a client of the consulting firm, Ohio Art in Bryan as their Quality Control Manager for three years, which required numerous trips to China, Thailand, and Hong Kong because Ohio Art had relocated its Etch a Sketch factory to China. Three years later, John was asked to return to Kent State University working in the Office of the Vice-President as a trainer in Human Resources. In 1998, he accompanied his wife to live in Atlanta, where he taught geography at Georgia State University, Department of Geosciences from 1998 to 2011.

Throughout his academic career, John led numerous student and community tours to Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America focusing on the cultural, environmental and political heritage of the people living in the area. Tours took place in at least in 25 different countries with numerous tours being repeated. Ireland holds the record with tours thirteen different years. After he retired from Georgia State University, John volunteered as a lecturer at the Senior University of Atlanta. His volunteer work included the Amigos de las Americas program, the Carter Center, the National Collage Society Board, and the Kent State University Alumni Board.

Do not be sad for John, nor his family at this abrupt end to John's life. The family had time over the four weeks from diagnosis to death to talk, cry, and talk some more and all, including John, agreed that John lived a blessed life! When John was just six years old, his aunt asked him if he had a girlfriend. John said yes and that he was going to marry Diane DeMuth. There is even a picture of them in one of the Paulding High School annuals holding hands outside their sixth-grade classroom although neither can remember the actual event. John and Diane were married at the end of John's sophomore year in college. Their lives have been blessed with a beautiful family and wonderful friends, who have brought so much joy and wisdom into their lives. In addition to his wife Diane, John is survived by his daughters Elizabeth Winters and Elaine Allensworth, their husbands Brian Winters and Steven Meyers, and his grandchildren Clate and Danny Winters, and Emma Meyers.

Memorial services will be held at the Den Herder Funeral Home in Paulding, Ohio on September 6, 2025, with calling hours beginning at ten and the actual service beginning at noon. The memorial service has been delayed three months to allow grandsons to return to the United States, one who is completing a Master's Degree in Barcelona and the other grandson enrolled at Indiana University to complete his junior year abroad at a university in Tokyo.

Instead of flowers, if you wish to do so, donations as a living legacy for John can be submitted to Family First Home & Healthcare Services (Link to Spotfund) which was established to provide scholarships to assist families who need financial assistance to enroll their loved ones in home health care but do not have the funds to do so. Whether this care is needed following a hospital stay, assignment to hospice care, or to ensure that an elderly parent can stay in their own home with a little help to assist with personal care, meal preparation, skilled nursing and/or companionship - as well as to allow a caregiver time for other obligations. While Medicare pays for hospice services, the cost of a home health aide providing services for a contracted period of time must be paid by the family. Or you can leave a donation to the charity of your choice in John's name.

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