Paul Warren Allen, 96, who chaired the music department at North Central College for 14 years and led the school’s concert choir, died Saturday, Dec. 4, in his Florida home of complications after surgery, said his daughter.
Mr. Allen came to North Central in 1957 after serving on the music faculty at nearby Wheaton College. He assembled the North Central Concert Choir, which grew to include more than 100 students and toured the U.S. and Canada, performing for as many as 17,000 people a year.
In the 1960s, North Central’s Concert Choir performed at Orchestra Hall, home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Allen left the Naperville school in 1971 when the music program was folded for financial reasons. North Central revived the music program in 1987.
“He left a great legacy,” says Jeordano “Pete” Martinez, a North Central music professor and Naperville Chorus director. “Alumni just rave about him. There was a strong kinship among members of the choir from that era.”
Mr. Allen’s daughter Paula Billingsley said music was her father’s passion and he also treasured his memories with students. Decades after leaving North Central, he still kept a notebook of choir concert programs and old letters from former students.
“They meant as much to him, as he did to them,” she said.
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He was born in 1913 in Rochester, N.Y., a direct descendant of American Revolution figure Ethan Allen. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, where he was director of choral activities for several years. He moved to the Midwest in 1953.
Under Mr. Allen’s leadership, North Central’s Concert Choir performed nationwide on an annual spring tour that included numerous appearances on radio and television. The choir’s repertoire included works of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary periods as well as Christian hymns and spirituals.
“He truly had a gift,” said Sandra Hammel, a 1972 graduate of North Central. “Those rare ones who elevate our experience contribute to a richness in our lives, especially in the arts. ‘Prof’ Allen was one of those jewels.”
In addition to directing the choir at North Central, in the 1960s Mr. Allen was instrumental in establishing the NCC-Community Chorus, also known as the Oratorio Association, a 200-member ensemble that evolved into today’s Naperville Chorus.
Mr. Allen remained at North Central as chair of the music department until 1971, when financial pressures caused the suspension of the college’s music program. He continued working with school and church choirs and as an adjudicator and guest conductor at music festivals and contests.
In the 1980s, he became a real estate broker for Coldwell Banker, his daughter said. He later moved to a retirement community in Florida.
North Central still feels a connection to him.
“In many ways we are keeping alive the traditions that Paul Warren Allen was instrumental in starting at the college,” said Martinez.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Allen is survived by two other daughters, Bonnie-Jean Hisgen and Gail Townsend; 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Eleanor Schuyler Allen, and a son, Richard Ethan Allen.
Services will be held in Florida.