Raymond Albert Allen

Our loving, talented, generous father Ray left this world early in the morning of November 12th, in the home he built with the love of his life, Helen. 

Ray was born in 1925 into a farming family in Valleyford, WA, the son of Raymond and Emily Bruna Allen and brother to his four siblings, Francis, Gene, Richard and Patricia.   After high school he joined the Navy in 1944 and was at the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945. It was in the Navy that he discovered his talent in engineering. He loved his navy years!

He attended Gonzaga University on the GI Bill and graduated in 1950 as an electrical engineer. At Gonzaga Ray was impressed by his Jesuit teachers and converted to Catholicism. He worked at Washington Water Power, later Avista, for 34 years and retired as Head of the Gas Engineering Dept. He started his own consulting business and retired at the age of 92. 

Prior to leaving Gonzaga Dad prayed at the Novena of Grace to help him find a good wife. On his first day of a new job in Philadelphia St. Francis came through for him and he met Helen Rutledge at a dance. They had 63 loving fun filled years together with seven children.  They loved traveling and square dancing. Dad could always be counted on to fix any household breakdown and even managed to pass some of his engineering skills to all of us kids. If ever asked if he could do something, he would reply “don’t you think I can handle it?”  Of course, we knew he could!

Ray was preceded in death by his wife Helen in 2014 and son Rick in 1993.  He is survived by Kathleen, Mike and wife Connie, Terie and husband Mike, Pattie and husband Matt, Brian and wife Heather and Nancy and husband Fernando, nine grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren. 

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