G. Wesley "Wes" Allen, 91, lawyer

G. Wesley "Wes" Allen, 91, a lawyer for the City of Philadelphia and the U.S. Postal Service for many years, died of natural causes Nov. 7 at Montgomery County Rehab Center in Wyndmoor.

Mr. Allen practiced law in Philadelphia for 15 years, and served as an assistant city solicitor in the 1960s before his appointment as regional counsel for the Post Office. He retired in 1987.

Mr. Allen was born in Collingdale and grew up in Cleveland. He attended Glenville High School, and was Ohio's high-jump champion and an all-city basketball player.

Despite an attempt by Jesse Owens, the track and field star, whom he saw at meets, to recruit him to Ohio State University, Mr. Allen decided to attend the University of Michigan. In 1938, he set an NCAA high-jump record. Drafted in 1942, he served as a first lieutenant in an artillery division of the Army in World War II and in the Judge Advocate General's Corps during the Korean conflict.

Mr. Allen graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1947. Soon after, he joined the Philadelphia law office of Raymond Pace Alexander and his wife, Sadie T. M. Alexander. Raymond Alexander later became a Common Pleas Court judge.

Mr. Allen's maternal grandmother, Josephine Turpin Washington, graduated in 1889 from Howard University and worked for Frederick Douglass as a journalist.

Mr. Allen was a member of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and was a past member of the Frontiers Club International, the Del Val Golf Club, the Barristers Club, and federal and local bar associations. He enjoyed reciting the poetry of Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

For 59 years, he was married to the former Eloise Downing, whom he met in the bookstore at Howard. She died in 2003. The couple made their home in West Mount Airy and enjoyed vacations on Martha's Vineyard.

Surviving are two sons, Wesley C. and Mark D.T., and six grandchildren. Mr. Allen was predeceased by two brothers.

A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at Ivy Hill Cemetery Chapel, 1201 Easton Rd. Interment will be later at Ivy Hill.

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