Ann Amelia Alberts Allen's Obituary
Ann Amelia Alberts Allen, wife of Richard P. Allen, passed away on 4 July 2024 in Lehi, Utah.
Ann was born on 29 September 1938 in Washington, Washington County, Pennsylvania to Arnold Alberts and Frances Jacobs Alberts. She was named for both of her grandmothers. She grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana, where her father taught chemistry at Purdue University. Her mother was the successful author of many children’s stories and books. In 1952 the family moved to Midland, Texas, where she graduated from Midland High School in 1956. She was a member of the National Honor Society and the Junior Classical League (Latin language club).
In May 1960 Ann graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska. She was elected member of the Alpha Chi honorary academic society. She majored in biology and minored in chemistry and German. In addition to a certificate of Distinction in Biology, she had been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Protozoology at the University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria. At this time in 1960 a Fulbright Scholarship was the highest award of international study that a woman could achieve.
During her time in Vienna, Ann became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Returning to the United States the following summer, she began her graduate study in zoology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She soon met Richard P. Allen, a doctoral candidate in metallurgy. They were married and sealed for eternity in the Idaho Falls Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 13 June 1963. When both had completed their graduate work, they moved to Richland, Washington in 1965, where Richard was employed as a scientist by Battelle Northwest.
Two daughters were born to the couple: Rebecca in 1965 and Susan in 1968. Also in 1968, Ann became chronically ill, a condition that would affect her for the rest of her life. No longer able to pursue her scientific endeavors, she capitalized on her background in German and her strong interest in the origins of her family, who came from Ostfriesland, the northwestern-most area of Germany. She became a skilled German genealogist, translator and paleographer. At the Richland Family History Center, she often presented seminars about German Genealogical research and German paleography (old-style Script). She helped the patrons with their research, translated letters, documents and books for the patrons and worked diligently on her own research.
She achieved an unusual degree of success in her research for her own family in the German parish records, because she continued consistently for over fifty years to seek the records of her many Ostfriesian ancestors. Her research resulted in books about her Alberts lineage and about many of her ancestors, who actually lived in sod houses on the South Dakota prairies and in Alberta, Canada.
From February 1996 to August 1998 Ann and her husband Richard served as full-time genealogical missionaries at the Richland Family History Center. They accepted two extensions to their mission. Because Richard and Ann had both devoted the majority of their lives to genealogy and the Richland Family History Center, it seemed entirely appropriate that they celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2013 with a reception at the Richland Family History center itself. Later, when Richard retired as Director of the center, family and friends gathered there once again to celebrate the couple.
Ann was an accomplished embroideress, who greatly enjoyed working with the fibers, flosses, beads and embellishments of her hobby. She was a life-long learner and a voracious reader of science, history and fiction.
In 2020, Richard and Ann moved away from their beloved Richland home, first to Cypress, Texas and then to Lehi, Utah where they could be closer to family.
Ann is survived by her daughters, Rebecca (Tom Gleason) and Susan (Shaffer Buttars), and seven grandchildren, as well as her brother, Breck Alberts and his wife, Bonnie.
Funeral Services will be held Friday, July 12th, 2024 at 200 N Center Street, Lehi Utah. Viewing at 9:00 am, with the funeral services following at 10:00 am. Interment will occur at the Allen Family Plot in the Hyrum City Cemetery, Hyrum Utah.
The funeral will be livestreamed to the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/live/u5vKS5fw7dE
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