Allan Pasco Obituary

Allan Humphrey Pasco was born August 29, 1937, the son of Bernedine Mae Humphrey Pasco and Ray Edwin Pasco in Nashville, Tennessee. His two younger siblings were sister, Joan, and brother, Neil. In Great Falla, Montana, he graduated Great Falls High School in 1955, and then he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 1960, having also spent a year studying in Dijon, France during his junior year. Allan married Dallas Marlene Christiansen on December 29, 1960 in Huron, South Dakota.

He then earned a Master's Degree in French Literature from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1961. The next two years he was enlisted in the United States Army, at Fort Rucker aviation base in Alabama. Subsequent to military service he enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan, receiving his PhD in French Literature in 1968. He taught at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois beginning in 1967, and in 1973 he began teaching at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana being promoted to Full Professor in 1979 and also served as Visiting Professor at the University of California in Los Angeles California in 1979. He taught at Purdue for 17 years where for ten years he concurrently was a weekend gentleman farmer/sheepherder. In 1989 Allan accepted a position at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas as Hall Distinguished Professor of 19th Century Literature where he spent 32 years as a devoted teacher and productive scholar.

Over his 54-year professorial teaching and scholarly career, he was an active presenter of academic papers and of scholarly lectures at hosting universities, both domestic and international, and was the author of scores of articles and of eleven books centered on French literary and cultural topics of the last several centuries. He intermittently worked in the libraries of France on trips to Paris, Grenoble, Marseilles and other locations in pursuit of scholarly research. He never lost his love of the excitement of learning. Allan was a member of several academic and professional organizations and belonged to Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Sigma Iota honor societies as well as Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He was awarded membership in Who's Who in America and subsequent Lifetime Achievement Award. He was recipient of the Outstanding Civilian Service award from the United States Government, and was presented the Palme Academique award from the government of France.

Allan became a Christian when he was about 35, and spent the following fifty years following Jesus, who at his death on October 12, 2021, has welcomed him with forgiving arms into the glorious realm of his Father God. He is survived by his beloved family; by Dallas, his wife of sixty years, by daughter, Schuyler Erwin of Tacoma, Washington, by daughter, Teague Sanders of Tacoma Washington, by son, Brandt Pasco of Palm Coast, Florida and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and by daughter, Chandar Payne of Merritt Island, Florida, and by 10 grandchildren, as well as his sister, Joan Weaver of Olympia, Washington and numerous nieces and nephews.

Private burial will be at Wild Horse Cemetery in Jefferson County, Kansas. A public celebration of the life of Allan Humphrey Pasco will be announced later. Any gifts in memory of Allan H. Pasco can be sent to Rev City Church in Lawrence Kansas for the Nick Willems Education Fund. barnettfamilyfh.com