Allan Robert Thurman

1939 - 2025

Allan Robert Thurman

1939 - 2025

Salt Lake City, UT-Allan Robert (Bob) Thurman died October 5, 2025 in Salt Lake City. He was born February 20, 1939 in Salt Lake City to Allan Curtis Thurman and Claudia Elaine Stokes Thurman. Growing up in Salt Lake, he graduated from East High School and subsequently served an LDS mission in Switzerland from 1959-1961. He was a graduate of the University of Utah with degrees in journalism (B.A. 1963) and law (J.D. 1966). In his professional career he served a year with the General Counsel Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration, four years as an assistant professor of business law at Utah State University, and nearly 25 years with Utah State Government-first the Department of Business Regulation and then as administrative law judge for the Public Service Commission.

Robert married Margo Jennings in 1982. He was a member of the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City, and served there as a board member and as congregational president in 1981-82. He gave support to the American Civil Liberties Union and to PFLAG. His interests were wide-ranging: including music, American and European history, writing, and photography. He was always concerned with current events and issues, especially those pertaining to environment and to economic and social justice. He authored two published books: 'Whitewashed Tombs' (fiction 1987), and 'Cassandra's Last Warning' (non-fiction 2011), as well as multiple opinion essays published in The Salt Lake Tribune and various websites.

Family and friends were important to Robert. He often spoke of his love for his wife, Margo. Robert and Margo were fond of hosting dinners for extended family, including nieces and nephews. In the Afterword (1998) of a family history he compiled from his parents' writings, he wrote of his "love for . . . my family members, [and] my pride in our ancestry . . . ."

He is survived by his wife Margo Jennings Thurman (Salt Lake City), his sister Susan Thurman Mitchell (Herriman, Utah), his brother David Jeremy Thurman (Decatur, Georgia), and seven nephews and nieces: Jeremy Lynn Garff, Eric Thurman Garff, Nikolas Garff, Gina Mitchell Jankovich, David Mitchell, Elisa Mitchell Eames, and Alan Mitchell. He was preceded in death by his sister Coralynne Thurman Garff.