Saratoga Springs – Richard Sanders Allen, 91, husband of the late Doris Bishop Allen, died Friday, June 20, 2008, in the Life Care Center, Lewiston, Idaho, of congestive heart failure.

Born in Saratoga Springs, he lived in Schenectady, Round Lake, Albany, Ballston Spa, and Loudonville, NY, before moving to Idaho. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. For many years he was Postmaster of Round Lake Village. He co-edited and co-wrote the pioneering newsletter-magazine on covered bridge history, “Covered Bridge Topics.”

Richard Allen was one of the first researchers and writers for the original “Mobil Travel Guides.”

He became a staff member and eventually the Chairman of New York State’s Bicentennial Commission. He was an aviation researcher for the Smithsonian Institute and free-lance writer and consultant on commercial aviation and on other aspects of engineering history. As “the country’s leading expert on covered bridges,” he was the author of numerous books, including “Covered Bridges of the Northeast.” He published hundreds of articles in such magazines as “Vermont Life,” “True,” “American Heritage.”  In 1963, he received a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship for historical writing. As an expert on pre-World War II commercial aviation, he wrote “Revolution in the Sky” and “The Northrup Story 1929-1939.”  He continued writing and publishing articles and mentoring other historians in America and Europe even in the rest home.

In 2006, he donated the entirety of his important and extensive collection of over 3,000 aviation books and research materials to the Empire State Aerosciences Museum, Schenectady, NY. 

Richard Sanders Allen is survived by Prof. Dick Allen and his wife, Prof. L. N. Allen of Trumbull, Connecticut, and Prof. Robert Bishop Allen of Kooskia, Idaho; two grandchildren, Rev. Richard Negridge Allen of Sayville, New York, and Tanya Angell Allen of New Haven, Connecticut; as well as by many nieces and nephews. Friends are invited to attend a memorial service at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 26, United Methodist Church, 175 Fifth Avenue, Saratoga Springs. Memorials may be made in support of the Rick Allen Collection, Research Library, Empire State Aerosciences Museum, 250 Rudy Chase Drive, Glenville, NY 12302.

Graveside services will take place at the convenience of the family. Arrangements are under the direction of the William J. Burke & Sons/Bussing & Cunniff Funeral Homes, 628 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY.