Willow Glen Resident

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Allan Gordon shared his memories of youth in Willow Glen with others

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

If it was one thing that everyone can agree on, it's that Allan Gordon was a gentleman.

The former Willow Glen resident and landlord died at his home in Lompoc on Oct. 16 after a long illness.

"He was a very upright, honest gentleman," says his wife of 57 years, Barbara Gordon. "He was always true to all his friends and true to his family. He was a fine person."

Gordon was born in San Francisco on Oct. 11, 1913, and grew up in the Victorian at the corner of Lincoln and Minnesota avenues in Willow Glen.

The house, now home to Our Secret, a consignment shop, still remains within the Gordon family.

"He went to school across the street," says his wife. "His mother used to make lunch, and the teachers would come over to eat. It was like a cafeteria of sorts."

The stories of growing up in downtown Willow Glen before it became a major business district are familiar to Julie Painchaud, owner of Our Secret.

"Every time I was around him, I'd ask him questions about him growing up here," Painchaud says. "He always talked lovingly of the home where he and his brother lived upstairs.

"He would tell me that he and his brother used to slide off the roof, and it would make his mother crazy," she says. "I could just imagine these two rambunctious boys having the time of their lives."

Painchaud first met Gordon five years ago when another Willow Glen merchant introduced her.

"I was looking for a new location, and this fellow merchant knew I was lusting after this particular site," she says of her current location. "Allan was a very dignified, powerful and extremely knowledgeable gentleman, but you didn't want to mess with him. He was a straight shooter and a very good businessman."

Gordon's parents had owned the Victorian as well as the rest of the buildings on the corner of Lincoln and Minnesota avenues.

"Allan was an established human being," Painchaud says.

Gordon graduated from UC-Berkeley with a degree in engineering. Prior to his retirement in 1973, he had been with the Atomic Energy Commission working at the Stanford Linear Accelerator.

He was in the Navy during World War II and served as an engineering officer on two destroyers. After the war he returned to civilian life and his engineering career but remained in the Naval Reserve, eventually retiring as a commander.

"Retail wasn't his bag," Painchaud says, "but keeping his home on the avenue was a way for him to contribute. He had a sense of community and left that legacy."

Gordon visited as often as he could, always catching up with Painchaud on the local goings-on, never without sharing a story of the past.

"He enjoyed visiting here," she says. "The last time he was here, he was in a wheelchair and didn't have access to the building. He told me, 'This is probably the last time I'll be able to visit.' It broke my heart."

Painchaud, however, is comforted to know that Gordon did the best he could with the hand he was dealt.

"He was a success in his own right," she says. "At the end, you want to look back and say you did the best with what you were dealt, and he certainly did."

Gordon is survived by his wife, Barbara, his daughter Keven, and sons, Brian Allan and Robert Alexander.

A celebration of life will be held at a later time. The family requests that donations be made to the Marian Hospice in Santa Maria in his name.