FROM JANUARY 2014
Don Allen
What Drives Him?
SPONSORED BY EXCELER
STORY BY MARSHA BROWN
PHOTO BY MEGAN PARKS
Don Allen is a study in contradictions.
He’s a high-profile member of Parker County’s
business community and almost everyone here is
acquainted with him on some level, but very few actually
know him all that well.
He’s a man of mystery, who happens to be honest to a
fault and never sugarcoats anything.
It was late fall when I interviewed Don, but outside it
felt like late spring and the sunshine was overwhelmingly
bright while lights in Don’s office were turned out. The
Beach Boy’s played softly. Pet Sounds?
Don’s office was furnished in a mid-20th century
Cattle Baron motif, handsome but with functional, sturdy
furnishings, with no frills and no nonsense — a little like
the man himself.
When I had requested the interview, I was halfexpecting him to decline, but he didn’t.
“What are we going to talk about?” Don said from
behind his massive desk.
“What do you want to talk about?” I said, “What is the
most interesting thing about Don Allen?”
He laughed. Then after a few seconds said, “My sense
of humor. A lot of people understand my sense of humor,
but some don’t. I like to think that most do. I guess that’s
my best trait — a dry sense of humor.”
Saying It Out Loud
Don’s Drive
“We’ve been good friends for 35 years,” Mac Smith
said. “Don has always been a workaholic. He’s not the
most sociable guy you’ll ever meet. He’s about 75 percent
reclusive. But he is one of the most intuitive, down-toearth sensible guys.”
How Don has navigated through his career route is
almost as interesting as Don himself.
“I was unemployed,” Don said. “Back in the ’60s they
had employment agencies where you could go and pay
them and they’d find you a job.”
Don’s agency sent him to Jack Williams Chevrolet as a
service cashier.
“I told them I really do want this job. I hounded them
for about three days,” Don said. “I was a lot nicer back
then. They hired me and that was my entry into the car
business.”
Don loved the business instantly, and he loved his
job.
DECEMBER 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
Then he said it. He used that word, that obscene,
unspeakable word without flinching. “Do you want to talk
about my cancer?”
How do I answer that?
I’ve known Don Allen since I was a kid, and he’s
always been a hero to me. The truth was I really didn’t
want to talk about Don’s cancer. What I really wanted
was for Don to not have cancer. “We can talk about your
cancer if you want to,” I answered. “We can talk about
anything you want to talk about because you are Don
Allen.”
Don cocked his head, smiled his great, insightful halfsmile and then he told me his story.
“Well, I went in February of 2012,” Don said. “I
already knew I had a problem, so we did surgery. Then
in April I went and met with my oncologist. He said I had
Stage 4 colon cancer and it covered 60 percent of my
liver.”
The normal lifespan is 22 to 24 months, Don’s doctor
informed him.
“I thought, ’Well that isn’t good.’ My wife di dn’t
like him at that time, the way that he presented the
information,” Don said. “Since then we have developed a
very good relationship, the three of us. I have been very
fortunate. I have been doing this (chemo) for going on
two years, and it has not made me sick. I have been able
to work. Work is my refuge. I come back to work, just as
quickly as I can.”
The sheer love of his work is one of the most
intriguing things about Don.
Continued on page 75
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