James B. Allen

James B. Allen was born in Ogden, Utah, on June 14, 1927, a warm day with light rain on the cusp of summer, the eldest of the four sons of Harold and Edna Allen. He passed away at the age of 97 on September 2, 2024. For nearly a century, from the time of Charles Lindbergh’s first solo flight across the Atlantic three weeks before Jim’s birth, to a time when sending men and women into space seems almost routine, he brought goodness, wisdom, and light into those corners of the world that he inhabited.

Jim spent his early childhood years in the small towns of Coalville, Utah, and Fairview and Afton, Wyoming, before his parents moved the family to Logan, Utah, where Jim finished school. Upon graduation from high school, he joined the US Navy in 1945, training as a photographer. After heeding the call from his country to serve in the Navy for three years, he heeded the call from his church to serve a mission in southern California for two years. There he was part of a mission program by which missionaries traveled “without purse or scrip,” in the manner of Jesus’ early followers as well as some of the earliest LDS missionaries. With only enough cash on hand to avoid running afoul of vagrancy laws, and no permanent place to stay, he and his companion were reliant on the hospitality of the communities in which they worked. It was a challenging but also a fortifying experience.

After five years of military and mission service, Jim now headed off to college, at Utah State University. It was during his college years in Logan that he met Renée Jones. After some persistence on his part and a bit of diplomacy by Renée’s mother, Jim and Renée began dating. They were married in 1953, one year before he completed his Bachelor’s degree in History in 1954. A Master’s degree from Brigham Young University followed in 1957, and finally a Ph.D. in History from the University of Southern California in 1963. Along the way, Jim and Renée began a family, returning to Utah in their Plymouth station wagon with four children. One more would follow during their early years in Orem. Jim and Renée were together for 69 years, until she passed away in 2022.

Jim had already been working for several years in the LDS Church Education System, teaching and managing at various seminaries and Institutes of Religion in Utah, Wyoming, and California. Having completed his Ph.D., he now accepted a full-time position at Brigham Young University in 1963, initially in both history and religion but full-time with the history department beginning in 1964, where he continued to teach countless young students and mentor future professional historians until his retirement in 1992, in addition to chairing the department for six years. At the time of his retirement, he held the prestigious Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Chair in Western American History. Following his retirement from the department, he continued to be engaged in the research and writing of LDS history as a Senior Fellow at the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint history for another 13 years. He also spent a year as a volunteer Visiting Professor at BYU-Hawaii.

One of the highlights of his professional career was serving as Assistant Church Historian from 1972 to 1979, simultaneous with his work at BYU. While he was an undergraduate at Utah State University, he had become acquainted with Leonard Arrington, an economics professor there. When Arrington was appointed Church Historian, he asked Jim to be one of two Assistant Church Historians, charged with professionalizing the research and writing of LDS history in the context of commitment to the Church. He served in that capacity for seven years before returning full-time to BYU. It was during this time that he wrote one of his most widely-known books, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (co-authored with Glen Leonard).

To this day, Jim Allen is considered one of the leading figures in LDS historical scholarship. In addition to The Story of the Latter-day Saints, his important books include a biography of William Clayton, an associate of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young; a study of the mission of the Quorum of the Twelve to the British Isles in the 1830s; and a history of Utah in the second half of the 20th century. He is also the author of nearly 100 scholarly articles on Western American and LDS history.

But Jim did not spend his whole life with his nose in a book. He loved the LDS Church and served in a number of capacities–as a teacher, a high councilor, and twice as a bishop. In 1999, he and Renée responded to a call to serve a mission together for the Church Education System in Boston. He was in his element, once again engaging with university students as they asked some of the most important questions about faith, history, and personal responsibility. In addition to his service to his church, Jim was an engaged citizen, taking an active interest in local, national, and international issues and serving as a delegate at a state political convention. Jim was born exactly 150 years–to the day–after the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted the Stars & Stripes as the national flag. The day was designated officially as Flag Day in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson, like Jim a professionally-trained historian. He always loved his country, and proudly flew a flag every year on the birthday he shared with that symbol of freedom. The love of photography that began during his Navy service also continued throughout his life. He even set aside space in the basement of the family’s first house in Orem to build a darkroom.

As important as his career was to him, his family was more important. He and Renée raised five children, all of whom hold memories of their parents’ love, guidance, wisdom, fun, and occasional confusion or heartache at this or that questionable choice. But to his last days, Jim would eagerly tell any visitor about what his children or grandchildren were doing. They were his favorite topic.

Jim and Renée were models of devotion, caring and comforting one another, worrying about their children together, and supporting one another through the challenges of aging. During Renée’s final years, when Alzheimer’s Disease robbed her of so many of her memories, the one person she unfailingly knew was Jim. He was her rock, her source of stability, and she was his. He often expressed how much he missed her, and the faith that they are once again together, leaning on each other, is a source of comfort to his family.

Jim is survived by four of his five children: Kristine (Scott) Card, Michael (Kelli), Nancy (Michael) Black, and Scott (Kit), and by his brother, Don. His daughter Kathleen and Kathleen’s husband Glen joined Renée to welcome him home on his passing, as did his parents, two brothers, two grandchildren, and others who have gone before. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, 9 September 2024, at the Sharon 3rd Ward, 700 East 445 South, Orem, Utah, with time to visit the family beginning at 10:00 a.m. Jim’s last few years were spent at the Courtyard at Jamestown Assisted Living Center in Provo, Utah, whose staff were caring and patient. Some of them became friends who would just stop by to chat with him. He loved this.

It would be untrue, even ungrateful, to say that Jim Allen’s life was too short, but to those he leaves behind the absence is nevertheless profound. He was a good and gentle man.