Rex V. Allender

Rex Allender passed away on June 7, 2022 at age 97. He had been a resident of Albuquerque since June 1967. He was born in Cedar, Iowa on February 1, 1925 to Verl and Vernice Allender, an only child. He attended early grade school in nearby Oskaloosa, Iowa – with upper grades and early high school in Stockton, Illinois. He finished high school in Oskaloosa in 1943 – taking a 5 year high school course. In 1943, during WWII, he joined the U.S. Maritime Service and then the Merchant Marine, serving as a Radio Officer on Merchant ships – sailing in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean war theaters. Rex always felt that those who served in the wartime Merchant Marine never received the recognition they deserved. After the war he attended Iowa State University, graduating in 1950 with a BS in Civil Engineering. He was then drafted into the Army for two years (1950 -1952), during the Korean War, serving most of that time at the Signal Corps Laboratories in Fort Monmouth, N. J. Following Army service he went to work for the engineering consulting firm of Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff in Kansas City – working on design of toll roads. In 1954 he went to the Dallas-Fort Worth area for design and construction of the toll road between those two cities. While there he met Barbara Breedlove and they were married in Dallas on August 24, 1957, just before the turnpike construction was completed. Immediately after, they moved back to Kansas City. In 1960 Rex became chief engineer for the Kansas City, Kansas Urban Renewal Agency – which involved a lot of public works construction in the older parts of that city. In the Spring of 1967 he received a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Then in the summer of 1967 Rex, Barbara and the family moved to Albuquerque N.M. where he became Director of the newly formed Urban Development Agency. He worked for the Agency and the City of Albuquerque in various capacities until his retirement in 1985. He was, at various times, in charge of Redevelopment activities, Public Housing, Building Inspection and Code Enforcement, Community Development and was an Assistant City Manager for a short time. He retired from City Government in 1985. He was an active member of the Rotary Club joining in 1968 and remaining an active member until his death (54 years). He was the club secretary from 1989 until 2018 (29 years) and also the editor of the club’s weekly 4 page news bulletin from 1992 to 2001 and again from July 2006 to 2015 (a total of 18 years). Rex was a frequent guest of his friends in the Kiwanis Club of Sandia. He was a (permanent on-call substitute) driver for meals on wheels from 1984-2018 (34 years). He was a member of the Board of Directors of The Encino Houses, an Albuquerque retirement home facility from 1972-1994. He was on the Board of Directors of Silver Horizons Inc. (a non-profit providing assistance to low income seniors) from 2005 to 2012. Rex was a member of Central United Methodist Church since 1967. He was active in the Partnership Class and then in the Alfies Class. At various times over the years he participated in church activities in many ways: choir, usher, church library, official board, Sunday lunch, etc. He was a great collector of books, especially on Russian History and academic inquiry on the historical Jesus. He was a stamp collector all of his life and amassed a large collection of unused American issues. Rex and Barbara were great travelers. After they both retired they visited, during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey and Egypt. He is survived by his wife Barbara, sons Steven of Aurora, CO, and Mark and his wife Beth of Champaign, Illinois and daughter Kim Cline and husband Bruce of Littleton, CO and grandchildren, Mackenzie Cline, Kelsey Mang and husband Cameron, Erica Allender and Ian Allender and his wife Sally, Audrey Allender, Eliza Allender, and one great granddaughter Ellie Ann Mang and one great grandson Caden Matthew Mang.