Monte Allen Obituary

Monte was born in Okmulgee Oklahoma June 12, 1921, and died peacefully at home in Anchorage on April 17, 2013, at the age of 91. He made a point of getting lots of exercise and enjoyed good health his entire life. After spending his early years in Oklahoma he moved to California as a teenager. Since he had never seen the ocean before, he walked 25 miles to the beach, stayed an hour, and walked the 25 miles back. He worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930's and early 1940's, then entered the Army and served in Alaska during World War II.



From the late 1940's to the early 1960's he worked for the Alaska Railroad. The most favorite time of his life was working as the section chief for the Bird section of the railroad. That was long before there was a Seward highway, and one night after working late, past the departure of the last train, he walked 30 miles to Anchorage to get to town for the weekend.



From 1961 until his death Monte worked in oil and gas leasing, with expert knowledge of Cook Inlet. He made $10,000 on his first deal, which was a lot of money at that time. He was briefly mentioned in Crude Dreams, a book about the early days of the oil industry in Alaska. He was known to add fractions of a cent to his bids, such as $5.1256 per acre, which did help him win close bids. He also was involved in gold mining in the Wrangell / St. Elias, until the Park was established.



Monte was well regarded because he was such a kind and gentle man. A celebration of life will be held at the Petroleum Club on Friday May 10th from 5pm to 8pm.