Pastor was coach, principal for TPS
7/12/2006The Rev. Roy E. Allen, 63, a retired Toledo Public Schools administrator who was pastor of Family Church Without Walls for 11 years, died Saturday in his West Toledo home from complications of pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Allen was an assistant principal of Libbey High in 2005 when he retired from the school district. He had been principal of the former Old West End Junior High School.
"He really had a communication with the young people and just tried to get to them, especially the young males," his wife, Barbara, said. "He wanted to get them going in the right direction."
Mr. Allen was a graduate of Bishop College in his native Dallas and taught and coached there for several years. In the early 1970s, he was recruited by the Toledo schools and moved north, his wife said.
He had been assistant football coach and then head coach at Scott High School and taught social studies, driver's education, and physical education.
He received a master's degree from the University of North Texas and a specialists' degree from the University of Toledo.
Mr. Allen long had a call to the ministry and "finally had to give into it," his wife said. He was ordained in 1991 and was installed as pastor of the Family Church Without Walls in May, 1995. He succeeded the church's founder, the Rev. Floyd Rose.
Mr. Allen was a former trustee of Family Baptist Church.
"He had a natural instinct to be a leader and to provide, especially for young people, guidance and direction," his wife said.
Surviving are his wife, Barbara, whom he married Aug. 8, 1981; sons, Roy E. Allen, Jr., and Derrick Ross; daughter, Lynette Holston; mother, Hattie Allen; sisters, Edna Allen and Jessie Gross-Warren, and three grandchildren.
The body will be in Family Church Without Walls after 5 p.m. tomorrow, followed by Alpha Phi Alpha services at 7:30 p.m. in the church. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday in Church of the Living God, with wake services at 9 a.m. in the church. Arrangements are by the C. Brown Funeral Home.