The Philip Schuyler Allen, Sr. Story

Philip Schuyler Allen, Sr.


Picture of Philip Schuyler Allen, Sr. - Probably Taken When He Was A Professor At The University Of Chicago Philip Schuyler Allen was the third of four children born to Lydia Reed (Ford) Allen and Ira Wilder Allen. He was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, August 23, 1871.

An 1893 biography about Ira Wilder Allen and his family indicates that after receiving his bachelors degree, Phil worked for one year at his father's school, Allen Academy.1 He then went to Germany to pursue graduate studies. Beginning in 1894 and lasting until his death in 1937, Philip S. Allen was a distinquished professor in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. Phil was the author, translator and editor of numerous books, including books for children and young adults, and books related to teaching of the German languages.

There is a connection between both the Acker and Delaney families and Philip Schuyler Allen.2 Phil married Jessica Martha Acker. Jessica Acker's sister, Mary Ellen Bernard Acker, married Franklyn Henry Lowery and that marriage produced two children, Jessica Bernard Lowery and Edwina Acker Lowery. Edwina married Martin Cleveland Delaney, Sr., and the couple had two children, one of whom was my father, Franklyn Lowery Delaney.

Philip Schuyler Allen died from a heart attack at his home in Chicago, Illinois, on April 27, 1937. A New York Times obituary indicated that he was survived by four children: Philip Schuyler Allen, Jr.; Margaret Ford Allen; Philippa Allen, a social service worker in New York; and, Mary Bernard Allen, who was a member of the faculty at Newcomb College in New Orleans.3 Another obituary and tribute, published in Modern Philology, a journal that Phil founded, provided additional details about his life and academic accomplishments.4



1 John J. Flinn, The Handbook of Chicago Biography, The Standard Guide Company, Chicago, 1893.
2 Conversations between Robert F. Delaney and his father Franklyn Lowery Delaney, 1999-2004. Jessica Martha (Acker) and Philip Schuyler Allen were Frank's grandaunt and granduncle.
3 New York Times, April 28, 1937, p. 23.
4 Modern Philology, Volume XXXV, Number 2, November 1937, pp. 113-114.

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