Daniel Allen

Daniel Bagley Allen, a fifty-year resident of Bainbridge Island and a descendent of the original Seattle pioneer Bagley and Mercer families, passed away at St. Michaels Medical Center in Silverdale on June 17th, 2021, after a long illness. Dan was born at Providence Hospital in Seattle on October 7, 1937, to Richard Bagley Allen of Seattle and Helen Louise Baldwin of Everett.

Dan graduated from Garfield High School in 1956 and was offered a full scholarship to MIT, but being an incurable romantic, chose instead to attend the University of Washington to remain close to his High School sweetheart, who sadly married another. During college, he was active on the UW Boxing Team and served as Coxswain for the Rowing Team. He was an ROTC Navy midshipman and graduated with his Mechanical Engineering degree in June 1960. Ensign Dan married his college girlfriend Karen Rogers in December 1960 and was sent to Honolulu, Hawaii where he lived in a Quonset hut while his new bride attended college. He served 2 years managing the Officers Lounge and often remarked that he was “lucky to have enjoyed a beautiful Hawaiian honeymoon on Uncle Sam.” He left the Navy as a Lieutenant JG.

Upon returning stateside, Dan worked at National Steel Corporation for a period then
started his own company, ”StepCo”, after inventing an innovative water heater component called a “step-controller”. Dan and Karen bought a Lake Union houseboat and relocated it to the expansive family summer property on Arrow Point Loop as a land cabin. Dan enjoyed the classic early 1960’s “traveling executive lifestyle” and Karen worked for North Kitsap School District. They divorced about 1970.

Dan left the company he started and spent the next fifteen years working in the HVAC industry. He enjoyed racing his 30-ft. sailboat in regional races and Regattas. He loved waterskiing on Manzanita Bay. For his 40th birthday, he purchased a 42’ Cheoy Lee Offshore Yawl, “Warlock”. He built the longest dock on Manzanita Bay, back when permitting was easy.

After enjoying the 1970’s as a “swinging single”, Dan married Christiana Carver of Tacoma. In 1984 he sold the sailboat and started a new company, SmartMoves, building “Linear Actuators”. Dan and Chris soon welcomed his two son’s Alexander Richard Allen and Sean Christopher Allen. He was a delighted late-life father and provided a wonderful island playground for his family. Chris and Dan divorced in 1998, but the family remained close.

Dan was a lifetime member of the Seattle Yacht Club, having joined as a Junior Member in his youth. In his free time, Dan was passionate about following auto technology, reading every auto and motorcycle magazine in print. He loved collecting cars and owned more than fifty in his lifetime, a list that he could easily rattle off until dementia finally diminished his memories. He coined several funny automotive terms that remain in the family lexicon, such as “catastrophic converter” and “pervertable”. He often bemoaned having traded in his 1957 Mercedes 300 SL for a 1970 Corvette. In retirement, he purchased a Taiwan trawler (he referred to them as stinkpots), “Fiddlers Green”. He enjoyed cruising Puget Sound with friends and family. He hosted the Classic Yacht Club for their annual Memorial Day rendezvous each year on the dock.

Dan was preceded in death by his parents, his younger brother Eugene Baldwin Allen and his niece Tammy Allen Wulff. He is survived by his devoted life partner, Theresa Shanahan (Bainbridge), his beloved sons Alexander Richard Allen (Bainbridge) and Sean Christopher Allen (Seattle), his niece Teresa Allen (Lake Tahuya), and grand-nephews David Gunn (Alaska) and Kaiden Thompson (Lake Tahuya) and his ex-wife Chris Allen Hoch (Bainbridge). Dan will be cremated and a family ash-spreading ceremony will be scheduled for a later date.

Arrangements are entrusted to the Cook Family Funeral Home of Bainbridge Island.