WHITE
ALLEN HENRY

Allen Henry White, known as Henry, was born February 6, 1966, in Philadelphia, to Welsh and Kate (McElheny) White. His brother, Robin Welsh White, was born the next year. The family of four moved to the east end of Pittsburgh, where the brothers were the youngest children in Park Place neighborhood, riding their Big Wheel on a private street, and sled riding on Cowboy Hill behind Shadyside Academy lower school. Henry graduated from an alternative high school, now in Oakland on McKee Place, and Antioch College. He often spoke of life lessons he learned in high school and college. There is still an Antioch bumper sticker on his car. While he enjoyed travelling throughout the United States, his residence remained the east end of Pittsburgh. In 2020, he became a homeowner in Swissvale, where he lived with dog Rudy and cat Layla who are being adopted into homes Henry would want for them.

Henry’s first jobs were in sales of paper, retail at a stationery store in Philadelphia, and then wholesale to print shops in the Pittsburgh area. He and Margaret Randolph, known as Meg, married at Waverly Presbyterian Church, in 1993. Their daughter Stephanie Jane was born in 1995, and son Brendan Wilson in 2000. After Henry’s father died in 2005, he considered himself responsible as family member to his sister Katherine Miranda and brother Ryan Thomas, then still minor children of his father’s second marriage to Linda (Timmons) White, and to his cousin Delia White. Although the years after his father’s death were challenging, and he and Meg divorced, Henry found strong purpose in sharing his example of sobriety with fellow members of Alcoholics Anonymous. He looked forward to his 13-year anniversary in November, of sobriety with no lapse.

Henry took the exam to become a realtor in 2013. He quickly put together a mastery of the rules of real estate with his skills as a salesperson. As a realtor with the Squirrel Hill office of Coldwell Banker, he most enjoyed working with clients who were choosing their first homes. He looked out for their interests before and after their purchases, always ethical in disclosures and giving guidance. He was well liked and respected by his clients and colleagues.

In July 2022, Henry was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a bone marrow cancer. Chemotherapy at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center kept him alive for longer than two years. Henry enjoyed playing golf and conversations with friends. He continued to enjoy life as he had lived, despite decreasing strength and increasing pain. A high point was his visit every October to his father’s summer house on a lake in Maine. He loved the call of the loons and decorated his house with paintings and carvings from Maine. He was able to go to Maine for the last time this month, taking three days to make the drive. A friend visited him at the lake house the day before he died there in his sleep on October 9, 2024.

Henry was enormously proud when his daughter Stephanie and her husband Stephen Klein became parents on February 16, 2024, making him a grandfather. He was also enormously proud that his son Brendan thrived in a summer internship that Henry arranged for him, and upon graduation from college began a fulltime job as a biologist in the office where he had interned.

Henry is survived by his daughter, Stephanie (Stephen) Klein; son, Brendan White; grandson, Dexter Jeremy Klein; mother, Kate Luxemburg; brother, Robin (Susan) White; half-sister, Katherine Hawkins; half-brother, Ryan (Liz) White; cousin, Delia White. Other cousins, and uncles, aunts, and extended family members also survive.