Harry Glen Alleman

April 17, 1923-May 26,2018


Harry Glen Alleman, devoted husband and loving father and grandfather, passed away peacefully in his sleep on May 26, 2018, at the age of 95. He is survived by his loving daughter and faithful caregiver, Martha Alleman, by Susan and Tom Alleman, his three grandchildren, Sarah Elizabeth Hock, Virginia Law Hock and Samuel Rule Alleman, and by his nieces and nephews.

Glen Alleman was born in Vilas, a hamlet in east central Kansas, on April 17, 1923. His parents, Harry O. Alleman and Fay Butler Alleman, were a teacher and principal and teacher in many different schools in eastern Kansas. They moved with Glen and his older sister Mary Elizabeth from district to district as the school years changed until Glen graduated from Coffeyville, Kansas, Senior High School.

Glen continued his education at Parsons, Kansas, Junior College where he met his one true love and wife of 62 years, Betty, a meeting he always described as love at first sight. Love had to wait, however because like most young men of his generation, Glen was swept up by World War II. He completed his college education at Kansas State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering, after which he immediately began his service in the United States Navy. In the Navy, Glen completed submarine training and became communications officer on the U.S.S. Tilefish, a submarine in the Pacific. Glen served on the Tilefish in war patrols during the last months of World War II and stayed in the Navy and on the sub as it made some of the first voyages under the Arctic ice pack by any vessel.

Glen married Betty, always the love of his life and now a registered nurse, after World War II; he received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 1947 and moved with Betty to Rochester. Glen started as an engineer in the Paper Service department of Eastman Kodak, beginning a career that would span forty years as Glen moved from helping Kodak make photographic paper to helping Kodak's sales force be more effective. Glen retired from Kodak in 1985 as a marketing management consultant after having traveled through most of the world for Kodak at a time when such travel was arduous and worked at the Marketing Education Center. During that time, Betty and Glen raised and supported two children, Martha, who has just retired, and Tom, who hasn't. From there it was a short step to grandparenthood, as Glen became a devoted father-in-law to Susan and grandparent to three grandkids, Sarah, Virginia and Sam.

These dates and places reveal something of the loving husband and devoted father that Glen was but they hardly scratch the surface of his long and devoted life. Glen played basketball on his high school team. He could do good rough carpentry work, run electrical wire, and garden. He had a beautiful baritone voice and sang in the Bethany Presbyterian Church choir, Greece Choral Society and Greece Performing Arts Society theatre productions. He played the French horn and, much later, became a percussionist in the Greece Community Orchestra. He won an award for photography. And, as many know, Glen was a truly gifted and completely self-taught water color painter.

Glen's sense of humor left a trail of smiles and good will. As everyone knows, Glen was not merely looking good. He was, in fact, good looking. Despite or possibly because of his good looks, Glen ate tomatoes by the peck basket and enjoyed quiet times on a back porch.

But Glen did not spend much time on his porch for many years. Betty and Glen – perhaps better known to most as "BettyandGlen," joined together in life as well as print – gave unstintingly of their time and expertise to the arts in Rochester for many, many years. Among many projects, they supported keeping arts in the Greece Central Schools at a time when budget cuts threatened to take away this important part of our children's education. They helped create and ran the GPAS Young Artist Auditions for many years. They helped found the Greece Performing Arts Society, and served, among many groups, the Hochstein School, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, the Downstairs Cabaret, doing everything from selling tickets to setting up the stage and in many cases designing the publicity posters. Wherever Betty was, Glen was very likely to be there too, working quietly and providing whatever assistance was necessary to get the project done or the show up and running.

Glen travelled to many parts of the world, at first for Kodak, and then with Betty. "BettyandGlen" visited London, Spain, Portugal, Canada, and many places in the United States and Canada, but they most fell in love with the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to which they returned for at least a month every year as long as they were able. They shared their love of the OBX with children and family, a tremendous gift that turned out to be highly contagious.

This hardly scratches the surface of Glen Alleman's life. It helps explain but does not truly reveal the depth of his steadfastness, his love for Betty or his love for his family. He taught character by example quietly and love by giving unstintingly. We shall miss him but his light remains inside all of us and we know we will see him and Betty at the next Heavenly Choir concert.