William I. Allen, 67, town watchdog, founded party

William I. "Bill" Allen of 20 Fairview Avenue, a government watchdog who founded the only third party ever to elect officials here, died Saturday, Jan. 27, 2001, at his home. He was 67 years old and the husband of Pamela Keeler Allen.
A vocal critic of what he considered government excesses, Mr. Allen was an observer and speaker at countless town hall meetings during the 1980s and 90s. His disenchantment with established political parties led him to found the Independent Party, three of whose candidates have since been elected to office.
“Bill never lost faith, or hope, that the actions of one citizen could affect the public honesty, quality and performance of elected and appointed officials,” said John P. Cooke, one of those elected Independents, in a tribute this week. “He believed that true citizenship required informed participation in the political process. He was troubled that so many citizens were merely complacent residents.”
William Irwin Allen was an “Army brat,” as he put it. He was born Oct. 26, 1933, at a military base on the Philippine island of Corregidor, the son of Col. William I. and Florence Laird Allen. He grew up on Army bases there, in Panama and at West Point where his father became an instructor of chemistry and math. Although Col. Allen survived being shot down in aircraft over Africa during the war, he died soon after the war in a train accident.
Mr. Allen studied at Storm King Prep School in Cornwall, N.Y., and had planned to go to West Point — automatic for the son of a former faculty member. But, he said in a 1998 interview, he overheard a general, after a couple of drinks at a party, “espousing that the U.S. should obliterate Russia right then... It scared the pants off me. Here was a very responsible man in the services of the United States, contemplating suicide for the population.”
So he turned away from a military career and instead graduated from the State University of New York at Middletown with a degree in English.
As a young man, he held a wide variety of jobs, including a radio announcer, a railroad gandy dancer, a road surveyor, a debt collector, an African violet specialist, and a photo technician. Being a debt collector “was a terrible job,” he once said. “You were trying to get blood from a stone.” The only worse work he had was “unloading cement from a railroad car in August.”
He came to Ridgefield in 1953, and worked for Ridgefield Photo Shop where he met Pam Keeler, whose ancestors were among the founders of the town. In 1958, he established the William I. Allen Insurance Agency, which long had its office on Catoonah Street. A year later, he and Pam were married.
Mr. Allen was active in the community for more than 40 years. He was president of both the Rotary Club and the old Jaycees, and had been a national director of the U.S. Jaycees, a former district vice president of the Connecticut Jaycees, and a Jaycee International senator. He was the first adult adviser to the Teenage Canteen, the town’s first teen center.
He served on the town’s 1968 Charter Revision Commission and on the Sewer Commission.
For a quarter century, Mr. Allen was active in the Fifth Connecticut Regiment, an organization that studies and re-enacts Revolutionary history. He marched in many parades and performed in many re-enactments in the Northeast. In 1977, he was chairman of the 200th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Ridgefield, which, he later reported, drew 40,000 spectators, involved serving 8,000 meals to participants, and needed permits from 33 government agencies.
He enjoyed doing things that were a bit different. During the nation’s bicentennial, a fleet of tall ships from around the world paid a visit to New York harbor. Mr. Allen and Dave Hebert, then Parks and Recreation superintendent, and two friends donned their Fifth Connecticut uniforms and drove to the Hudson River where they picked up his motorboat and headed to the city. There, wearing colonial garb and with a small cannon mounted in the bow of their boat, they navigated around the big ships, saluting the crews as the amazed sailors cheered and saluted back. Afterward, the four celebrated at Fraunces Tavern. A week later, a picture of their boat appeared in Newsweek magazine.
He was the town’s civil preparedness director for five years — and also owned several DUKWs (pronounced “ducks”), large amphibious landing vehicles he hoped to use here and in the area in emergencies such as floods. He drove one of the vehicles across the country to get it here.
Well known as a town watchdog, Mr. Allen attended and spoke at countless town government meetings, and penned scores of letters to newspapers, usually criticizing spending or what he considered poor planning. In 1993 he founded the Independent Party, three of whose candidates have been elected — the first was Mr. Cooke, who is still on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Mr. Allen himself ran unsuccessfully for first selectman in 1993.
“He was the kind of guy who was very, very devoted to watching the taxpayers’ dollars,” said Dom D’Addario, chairman of the Independent Party. “He did an awful lot of research.”
Mr. D’Addario recalled one night in 1993 when Mr. Allen drove up to his house. “I had never seen the guy before in my life, but in 20 minutes, he had me running for the Police Commission as an Independent — and I was a Republican, too. He was a very convincing speaker.”
In 1997, suffering from cancer, Mr. Allen retired from active life, though he still occasionally wrote on local issues. “Every person who has ever had cancer is constantly looking over his shoulder,” he said in the 1998 interview. “It changes your entire perspective on life. The things that were important before are no longer so important... You realize you are not impregnable, that you are part of the passing parade and that life is not forever.”
He had hoped to move to a 44-foot trawler and tour the Eastern Seaboard, but the disease prevented that.
“The kids and I have sat around this week and we’ve told stories and we realized that we had a pretty fantastic life because of him,” Pam Allen said of her husband. “I was always amazed: His mind just never, never stopped. His wheels were always whizzing.”
Besides his wife of 41 years, Mr. Allen is survived by two sons, Laird W. Allen and W. Todd Allen, both of Ridgefield; a daughter, Robin R. Allen of Tucson, Ariz.; a sister, Elizabeth Sternburg of Norwalk; two brothers-in-law, Roy Keeler of St. Augustine, Fla., and Russell Keeler of Lakeview, N.C.; a nephew, Mark Sternburg of Brookfield; and a niece, Sally Yarrish of Ridgefield.
A memorial service will take place Friday, Feb. 2, at 2 p.m. in the First Congregational Church.
Burial will take place at the convenience of the family.
Friends may call at the Kane Funeral Home, 41 Catoonah Street, on Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Ridgefield Conservation Commission Open Space Fund, Town Hall, 400 Main Street, Ridgefield, or to the Ridgefield Volunteer Fire Department, 6 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield.
“Or,” the family added, “in lieu of a contribution, vote Independent!” —J.F.S.