Lawrence Cottrell Allen
Dec. 9, 1930-Nov. 26, 2024
Portola Valley, California
Lawrence Cottrell Allen, Jr (Poppi), 93, passed away on November 26, 2024 surrounded by family after a brief illness. Larry was born on December 9, 1930, to Lawrence Cottrell Allen, and Kathryn (Gibbons) Allen in Cleveland, Ohio. He had two sisters, June Fisher, and Sally Ehrle.
Larry graduated with a degree in English from Bowling Green University where he met his future wife, Caroline (Hurlbut) Allen. After graduation, he joined the Air Force, completed pilot training and married Caroline. They had 2 sons, Kelly & Kevin, and one daughter, Jennifer. Larry was the first military pilot to fly the C-5A, the largest cargo transport airplane, and taught the first class of C5 AF pilots at Altus AFB (Oklahoma). He flew around the world numerous times, always whistling as he went out the door on his next trip and bringing back presents to his family from each country he visited. He served for 20 years, reaching the rank of Lt. Colonel with a final 12 month deployment during the Vietnam War to Udorn, Thailand as commander of a 1200 person air maintenance squadron.
After his retirement from flying in 1973, he packed up his wife and daughter and headed to San Francisco, California to seek a new venture in life, while his sons stayed in Oklahoma to attend college. With no printing experience, he answered an ad looking for a managing partner of a printing franchise, and opened his first PIP Printing store in Palo Alto. The Palo Alto store always placed in the top 10 of their franchise network and recently celebrated its 50th year in business. He was known as Mr. PIP to the community and clients knew they could count on him to get their projects done correctly and on time. He lived in Palo Alto until his retirement from PIP, moving to his favorite city, San Francisco, then to the Sequoias in Portola Valley where he lived for 19 years.
Larry is preceded in death by his wife, Caroline Allen, in 1997, and his companion Anne Braham in 2021. He is survived by his children, Kelly Allen and wife Fernanda, Kevin Allen and wife Tria, Jennifer Allen and husband Mike Maystead; grandchildren, Daniel, John, Karsyn, Kyle, Chris and Laura; and great grandchildren, Georgia and Tripp. He was his grandkids biggest fan, always encouraging them to stay true to who they were. Larry was always enthusiastic about and found joy in the simpler things in life - a sunny San Francisco day, a perfectly ripe piece of fruit from the farmers' market, and most of all, a meal with his loved ones. His family will miss his proclamations of the "best ever", his easy laugh, positive attitude, the adventurous foodie, and most of all, his kind & generous heart.
Tags: veteran
