Father David Allen, S.J., former longtime Good Samaritan chaplain, dies at 87

A private funeral Mass for Jesuit Father David G. Allen, a former chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore for 18 years, was recently offered at Manresa Hall in Wernersville, Pa. Father Allen died Aug. 31. He was 87.

Born in Springfield, Ill., Father Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in German, political science and history from Albion College in Michigan. After studying Czech at the U.S. Army Language School in Monterey, Calf. and earning his master’s degree in Germanic languages and literature from the University of Colorado in Boulder, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa., in 1966. While in formation, he studied philosophy at St. Louis University and received a doctorate in German literature from Washington University in St. Louis. He also received a Master of Divinity from the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, and was ordained a priest on June 9, 1979, at what is now Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore.

In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Father Allen served for a year as an assistant chaplain at what is now Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. He was chaplain at Good Samaritan from 1982 to 2000. He also served as superior of the Ferdinand Wheeler House in Baltimore for three years.

In 2001, Father Allen was missioned to the Czech Republic, where he taught English for five years at the Biskupske Gymnasium School in Brno. He then returned to Baltimore in 2006 to serve as minister of the Loyola University Jesuit community for six years, before moving to the Colombiére Jesuit community just a few miles away where he served in pastoral ministry.

In 2017, Father Allen moved to Manresa Hall, the Jesuit health center in Philadelphia.

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