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Celebrate the life of award-winning WVU Professor Dennis Allen

Dennis Allen

A ceremony to celebrate the life of Professor Dennis Allen will be held June 16 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in E. Moore Hall. An award-winning and beloved teacher and mentor in the Department of English for more than 30 years, Allen died Oct. 31, 2021. 

Doors will open at 3:30 p.m. and the formal service will begin at 4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. After the formal service, guests will have the opportunity to share stories about Professor Allen at the podium.

“Dennis’ charisma, humor, compassion and perspicacity were legendary,” said Mark Brazaitis, a colleague and director of WVU’s Creative Writing Program. “He touched and enhanced the lives of thousands of his students, colleagues and friends. He’s irreplaceable.”

Allen’s teaching was recognized with the Outstanding Teacher Award from the WVU Foundation. He was a three-time recipient of the Eberly College’s Outstanding Teacher Award and a two-time recipient of the Professor of the Year Award from Sigma Tau Delta, WVU’s English Honor Society.

Anyone who knew Professor Allen—or would like to know him in memoriam—is encouraged to attend the service.

June 16 would have been his 71st birthday.