Deceased July 29, 2015

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In Memory

Alling died on July 29 following a short illness. He came to Amherst from Lake Forest (Ill.) Academy, the son of Charles Brown ’16 and Bertha Alling (hence Alling’s first name). He was an Alpha Delt and honored in English. Alling sang with the glee club and was active with the Student, the Rotherwas Society, the pre-law club and Context.

After Amherst, Alling served two years in the Army at a weather station in Yuma, Ariz., before earning a law degree from Michigan in 1961. He spent the best part of the next three decades in Washington, D.C., where he owned a townhouse and worked for the NASD.

From the mid-’90s, Alling summered at the home he grew up in at Lake Forest. There he enjoyed swimming in Lake Michigan, jogging around town and singing with his church choir. Alling also appeared in community theater performances. He could often be spotted driving around Lake Forest in his blue sports car with the distinctive “ALLING” license plate.

On two occasions Alling was able to host classmates. In 2001 Mark Hanschka ’55 spent a week with him while flying his own plane back to Oregon from his Harvard Medical School reunion. In return, Mark gave Alling a bird’s-eye view of Lake Forest. On Sept. 11, 2001, Hank Coon ’55 and his wife, Peggy, were flying to New Mexico when suddenly all aircraft were grounded, and they were put down in Chicago. In desperation, he reached out to Alling, who hosted them until flights were resumed.

Alling was a loyal classmate, attending many reunions (going to one by train from Illinois) and serving as treasurer for our 10th reunion in 1965.

Alling never married. His only sibling, Charles Brown Jr. ’58, died in 2012.

Rob Sowersby ’55