FAIRFIELD—If you knew Father Charles Allen, you felt better about life. But he wasn’t Father Charles to us. He was quite simply “Charlie” to those who knew him.
The first time I met Charlie was when I was a young teacher working for the Jesuits at Fairfield Prep.
Charlie held the position of guidance counselor. The first thing about Charlie that you learned is that he never forgot your name, or your wife’s name, or your children. He had a rolo-dex in his mind that was crammed with vital information and he accessed it by touching the rim of his glasses and calling it to mind.
By remembering the names he showed you that you mattered to him and that your family was just as important. It always made me feel at home to be greeted by him. He was a mild mannered man with a ready laugh and a quick wit. He didn’t take himself too seriously. He once told a group of teachers that he became a priest “because there was no heavy lifting required.”
It wasn’t the first laugh Charlie got. What surprised me most was how a soft-spoken man turned into one of the best after-dinner speakers I have ever heard. It didn’t matter whether he stood in front of a crowd of thousands or worked a small room. He put people at ease with gentle humor, and even a few outrageous comments that nobody ever held against him.
When my daughter Rose graduated from St. Vincent’s Nursing College Charlie was the commencement speaker. He gave a remarkable talk about service that was crafted for an audience of young women. I sat there amazed at how many different groups he was able to communicate with. Always with humor and compassion. How could a quiet man be so at home with crowds of strangers? The answer was simple. No one was a stranger to Charlie.
For a while Charlie was the headmaster at Prep, but I don’t think he enjoyed being boss. He bore patiently with all the daily conundrums that a high school principal has to adjudicate, but his forte was being with people. In Charlie it became a high art. When he returned to Fairfield University his talents flowered, and he became legendary.
Sometimes I would see him with his sprightly walks around campus. We would stop and chat awhile always sharing a laugh before he hustled on to another meeting.
Besides being a toastmaster supreme, Charlie was the great tour-guide of the Fairfield Jesuit community. So when I saw that he was offering a visit to Ireland I signed up with the group.
Touring with Charlie was a little like walking on water. You couldn’t imagine yourself to be in a safer place and among better people. Charlie was the center of the good feelings and Christian love. The small masses he said at the end of each day lifted my spirits.
One of the memorable days on that trip was when Charlie and I walked from downtown Belfast to the National University where I had studied one summer a few years before. I wanted to show him the old buildings and greens. I was afraid that he would out walk me on the two mile hike, but I soon realized that he was having a little difficulty with the long walk.
Years ago, pointing to his white hair Charlie once said to me, “Bare, it’s good to look old in your forties because then for the rest of your life people will tell you how good you look for your age.”
We had our lunch at the campus pub and reminisced about the old days at Prep. He told me that he liked to read my columns in the Fairfield Citizen and recited some of my best lines. But Charlie wasn’t trying to stroke my ego. He had the capacity to enjoy other people and ask nothing for himself.
I took the check in hand and he insisted upon paying. Never say no to a Jesuit.
The best thing you can say about any man is that you will dearly miss him. Charlie, you should’ve lived forever and kept us all laughing and traveling the terrain of faith in our own passages through life.
A private funeral Mass for Father Allen will be livestreamed on Wednesday, January 17 at 10 am.
A memorial Mass, open to all, will be celebrated on Saturday, January 27, 2024, at 10:30 am at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fairfield, Conn. A reception on the campus of Fairfield University will immediately follow.
By Barry Wallace
Barry Wallace taught English and served as chair of the English Department at Fairfield Prep for many years prior to his retirement. He also wrote a popular column in the Fairfield Citizen News.
