John David Allan January 16, 1968 - December 7, 2022

John David Allan was born on January 16, 1968, in Niskayuna, New York, the fifth son and seventh and last child of Abraham Noble and Mary Carolyn Rutschow Allan while the family lived in Watervliet Arsenal, near Albany, New York. When John was two months old, Dad, a major in the army, was sent to Germany. The rest of our family arrived in June. John lived in Germany for one year, and then Dad retired to Spanish Fork, Utah, where John spent the rest of his life except for two years in England.

Dad built a home on the east bench, across from where the junior high now stands. Mom used to take 3-year-old John with her when she helped build the house. He napped peacefully next to her on the roof while she hammered the shake shingles in place.

We moved into our newly built home when John was four. Two weeks later, his oldest sister Carol graduated from high school and soon moved out, the first of six siblings to go to college, marry, and move away, eventually leaving him the last one home.

John had a happy childhood. He, Abe, and James loved to go exploring all day long, leaving after breakfast and coming home for dinner. Mom wrestled him and all the boys on the living room floor. John loved people and made friends wherever he went. He excelled in sports: Little League baseball, wrestling, and soccer. His love of wrestling began in those early years. He had responsibilities on the farm, such as weeding, pruning, and bucking hay, but he wasn’t sorry to have missed out on building the house and barn. His favorite elementary teacher was Mr. Strong in 4th grade.

As a youth, John was influenced by good scout leaders. He came to love scouting with an infectious enthusiasm. When he was 14, he went to his first Boy Scout Timberline camp. He did three years as a scout, three years as a scoutmaster trainee, and three years as a Timberline scoutmaster. He invited  Mom to cook for his Timberline group, which she dearly loved. John earned his Eagle and Arrow of Light, and later, the Silver Beaver. He was a scoutmaster for many years. Over and over, he taught his boys, “Use your resources.” He taught them to be aware of their surroundings and make use of whatever was at hand. John said his favorite church callings were scoutmaster and Sunbeam teacher.

While some of us Allans tended to be rather shy or reserved, John burst into high school like a whirlwind. Soccer, wrestling, cross-country and track as a sophomore. Wrestling, cross-country and track as a junior and senior. He earned 10 athletic letters, setting a record that he held for many years. Plus he lettered in debate one year and band all three years where he played the trumpet and French horn. On top of that, he took state in wrestling his senior year and finished third in his class academically.

John became a cheerleader for one day. He borrowed one of the girls’ cute little outfits and led similarly-clad boys in cheering on the Powder Puff football game, only he did it while playing his trumpet. A natural leader, John led the band as the drum major. Think Harold Hill from The Music Man with a red sombrero and a 4-foot-tall baton.

After graduating in 1986, John worked at a raft rental place in Flaming Gorge, working there for a total of five summers. While there, he made a close friend, Evan Nielsen. One summer, he had his humble Chevrolet Celebrity painted Camaro blue, just because.

John was called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the England Manchester Mission from 1987-1989. John, the ultimate Scout, started a scout troop in Barlow. He taught the boys scout songs and how to make a fire and cook on it. He took his scouts for walks, which is what they called hikes in England. And before you knew it, some of his scouts wanted to be baptized. John came home having had some wonderful experiences and having made a good friend for life in Robin Knowles.

John’s favorite subjects in high school were P.E., Band, and History. It was two of his loves, history and P.E., that he turned to when he entered BYU on a wrestling and academic scholarship and decided to become a teacher.

John wrestled and lettered for three years until a neck injury ended his college wrestling career. He was known for being able to wake up 10 pounds overweight, head to the gym, and in 3 hours when everyone else was down 6-7 pounds, John had lost 13.

After graduating in 1993, John taught history at Spanish Fork Junior High School for 16 years,  earning his master’s degree in 1996.

He coached junior high wrestling for 13 years with about 60 boys in the program each year, and his boys won the state championship 10 of those years. Those boys went on wrestle in high school and Spanish Fork High started taking state. John started the first Spanish Fork Ironman award. If a wrestler could do 50 of John’s hard push-ups without stopping, he earned an Ironman tee shirt. His goal was to get 18 Ironmen in one year and he made it. John promised the team he would shave his head if they won the state junior high championship. This was early 1995, and Kelly, who was just starting to date John, looked around the chapel for him at their singles ward on Sunday and didn’t see him. She didn’t recognize the bald man at the sacrament table.

One of John’s early 8th-grade wrestlers, Darius Simons, told me in early December 2022, “Coach Allan was the most influential man in my life. I was quite a knucklehead back then. Coach gave me a direction. He was very Christlike, a very amazing man.” John shot back, “That’s quite a compliment coming from a knucklehead like Darius.” When Darius was first starting to coach his own son’s wrestling team, he asked John how to do it. John replied, “Teach them to be a good person. With all the moves and all the hard work and all the athletic training, the most important thing was to be a good person. And No Chicken wings. Keep elbows in and wrists out. Don’t do the chicken dance.”

John also coached high school soccer, tennis, cross country, and track. Always wanting to make a difference, John started two courses at the junior high: weight training and government & law. The government and law classes were so popular, kids had to be turned away. Both courses are still being offered today.

In September of 1994, John started noticing a pretty girl in his singles ward. At an activity, he was impressed that Kelly Hult was the only girl on the court who knew how to play basketball. That grabbed his attention. He liked that she was fun and happy. They continued to hang out, went country dancing, hiking, rafting, and to game nights

They were engaged in June 1995. John said he wanted to be with her forever. She was always so kind. The number one thing he liked doing was making her smile. They were married on September 2, 1995, in the Portland Oregon temple.

Two years later they built their lovely home and had their first daughter, Emily, a week after moving in. Ashlee followed in 2000, and Erica in 2002. Kelly and the girls were the light and joy of his life.

John was an active, involved father. Every year when the church had its annual Father-Son campout, John took his girls on their own campout. They invited another father-daughter family and had more fun than the boys.

John taught his girls all of his scouting skills. They learned to build fires and cook outdoors better than the boys. He took each one on daddy-daughter dates like biking, going to the zoo, painting birdhouses, and playing sports. He danced the swing with them and wrestled with them on the living room floor.

John bought Emily a basketball hoop. There weren’t any girl basketball teams back then, so he put together one for her, the first such team in Spanish Fork, and the 4th team in the state. Now there are hundreds of girl basketball teams. He became a girls’ coach for the first time. He also organized and managed a soccer team for Ashlee and softball and basketball teams for Erica. He taught the girls to work hard and play hard.

John said his favorite things to do were camping, backpacking, working, working out, triathlons, traveling, photography, and Dutch oven cooking. John was a fantastic outdoor cook. He shared his talents with friends and neighbors and family. He cooked every Sunday dinner for his family and helped around the house with cleaning and other household chores.

John’s favorite vacation was to Hawaii in 2008. Mom invited all of the family who could go to celebrate her surviving her first year of cancer. John and Kelly took their three little girls and joined about 35 of us for nine days in Oahu. John and his family went to Hawaii three more times, the last one was in July of this year right after Erica came home from her mission.

Being the baby of the family, John often traveled with his parents. They were later joined by his growing family. They went to England, St. George, the Oregon Coast, Disneyland, and back East to the national and church historical sites. He really enjoyed hiking and photographing nature at Yellowstone and Lake Tahoe and rafting at Island Park. A favorite part of Disneyland was visiting with James and his family.

John loved going on the deer hunt. After his girls were old enough, John took Emily and Erica with him. Ashlee and Kelly had bonding girl time at home. John was grateful for Danny who bonded with his girls on the hunt and made them feel welcome.

In 2003, John won the prestigious Huntsman Award for Excellence in Education. The write-up said “He is an excellent example of one who can attain whatever one sets out to achieve. There is no better role model.” He was noted for using technology in the classroom and instilling work ethic and self-esteem in the athletes he coaches at Spanish Fork Junior High. “If there’s one phrase to sum up [his years of teaching], it’s this: He cares.” “He cares about the school, the students, the teachers, the programs, and everything that goes on.”

Three years later, he moved from the junior high to the District Office. He and his team developed an elementary age-appropriate, fun, and effective PE curriculum where every child could succeed and have lots of fun. Of his team, Celesta, Julia, Kathy, and Melanie, he told me, “When I got sick these fine ladies stepped up to the plate and filled in.” He called them “some of my dearest friends.”  Thank you, ladies. Also thanks to Seth Sorenson and Eric Ferrin.

After a vacation with his brother James on St. John’s Island in April 2016, John’s felt sick. When the doctors removed his gall bladder, they found cancer on his liver. That was the beginning of a whole new part of John’s life. For six years, he worked through red tape with the insurance companies, and plotted with doctors on how to best attack and conquer his cancer and Mel, the name he gave to his melon-sized tumor using the latest technology and medical advancements, both proven and prototypes. Last year, he had a reprieve where his energy came back and he got out and hiked Southern Utah, went on many family vacations, and remodeled his basement.

The reprieve ended when the family returned from Hawaii in July. After a valiant and courageous fight, John David Allan passed away on December 7, 2022, at his home in Spanish Fork.

He is survived by his loving wife, Kelly, daughters Emily, Ashlee, and Erica, father Abraham, siblings Carol, Ruth, Frank, Fred, and James, and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. He is preceded in death by his brother Abe, his mother Mary, and his mother-in-law Linda Hult.

There will be a viewing Sunday night, December 11, 2022,  from 6-8 at Walker Funeral Home, 187 South Main Street, Spanish Fork, UT 84660. The funeral will be Monday, December 12, 2022, at 11:00 at the Spanish Fork East Stake Center, 1158 East 1240 South, Spanish Fork, UT 84660 with a viewing from 9:30-10:45.

The funeral service will be streamed live. Please return to this memorial page shortly before 11:00 a.m. on Monday, December 12, 2022, and click on the link below