Allen N. Luterman
Allen's family roots trace to Poland. His father arrived around 1917 as a young child with his mother and two brothers, Sam and William, joining a grandfather who had come earlier and sent for them. His mother came in August 1937 from the Brest region to live with her aunt and uncle, Sarah and Reuben Gilbert. She urged her parents and siblings to leave Poland before the war, and they escaped, unable to enter the United States and settling instead in Montreal, Canada, with relatives later scattered across Canada, Florida, Philadelphia, and New Jersey. Allen's parents met in Dallas and married, and he was born September 21, 1941, at St. Paul's Hospital.
Allen grew up in South Dallas, first on Spence Street and later on Park Row, attending Little In School, Silverstein, and John Henry Brown grade school, then Forest Avenue High School. His family attended Agudas Achim, an Orthodox synagogue where his grandfather was the rabbi, and Allen was confirmed at the Talmud Torah Hebrew school and bar mitzvahed there. In 1955 the family moved north, and he graduated from Hillcrest High School. He attended the University of Texas at Austin before transferring to SMU, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He recalled fondly the streetcars, the Forest Avenue Theater, and playing pickup games with neighborhood children.
Allen worked as a chemist for Magnolia Chemical Company before serving in the Army Reserve with the 94th General Hospital unit, training at Fort Polk and in Houston and San Antonio. He then entered real estate, working with Harold Column and later developers Franklin Koch and Arthur W. Beck, managing properties including European Crossroads, and eventually becoming an independent broker for decades. He met his wife Susan through his friend Ronald Fineman, and they married and adopted two children, Steven and Adrian. Allen volunteered with B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, the Jewish War Veterans, and, most rewardingly, the Dallas Hebrew Free Loan Association, where both he and Susan served as president.
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Full Transcript
today is Monday June 26 this is Joe Rheingold interviewing Alan looter Minh good afternoon Alan tell me a little bit about your family where they came from what you recall about your grandparents and your parents and how they got to Dallas Texas my father came with his pair with his mother actually in 1917 I believe from Cudney Poland which is I'll tell you about that in a few minutes that that's really interesting cause I just recently found out about where it was my dad always assisted came is such a young age really didn't have a much more elaborate collection so he never could pin on
it for me no we just used to say he was from New Jersey but he that he came in with his two siblings the three brothers Sam William in Montana's name resisted or came in 1917 with their mother my grandfather's they like came some time earlier not sure exactly but he came and sent for them when he was able to do so and like I said they came from Poland my mother came from Poland in 1937 I believe it was from what she used to call the magician up looting which always used to throw me but I finally figured out after some research that was
really breast and one time was breast and there was there was brest-litovsk it was she called it vishesh non-living which was the breast on the big river which is where it is and she came to stay with her aunt and uncle Sarah and Reuben Gilbert Sarah was her aunt and Reuben was her uncle by marriage and so she came in in August of 37 sometime between then and 1940s she met my father and they they married and I was born a year later actually 364 days later where were they living at the time in Dallas in Dallas and why did they decide to come here
of all places they being your parents well I'm not sure about my grandfather but my my mother came here to stuck with her and to stay with her aunt and uncle she had three siblings two sisters and a brother and her parents still in Poland when the war broke out right before the war broke out and seeing through the news media what was going on there she urged him the writing them letters that they should get out and then in fact they did literally almost like on the last boat out and they came to the United States could not enter were not permitted to enter
the United States and then he helped so in Montreal Canada Canada didn't accept them so most of them of all moved here too like all her siblings are now gone so that whole but all the offspring are still scattered around one aunt an aunt my marriage is still as in Montreal but that's every year in month in in Florida which is Snowbird and then I have a cousin or one of her children one of her daughters this in Toronto and the rest are in the Philadelphia charity of New Jersey hear him that's where they all came from and where they have what neighborhood where did
you go honey I was born in September the 21st 1941 st. Paul's Hospital at the time was located on Paul Street and the first home that I was aware of was on a street called Spence in South Dallas where the Jewish community for the most part resided and my recollection was growing up there my first grade school was because my birthday was in September I was not permitted to enter school September the 1st when I turned I'm still 5 just almost 6 so my mother sent me to a private school for the what was equivalent to the fall semester I think it was called little in school and then since the skull that was closest to me
did not have midterm entry I did go to another school called silverstein which was a little further to the south of histo South Dallas for the spring semester and then during this following summer we moved to Park Row 27:15 Park Row and I spent my elementary school years going to John Henry Brown grade school and then back then you started high school well Department was called eighth grade was actually at the Forest Avenue high school so I was there for one year the following the area was still far seven high school and after that it became James Madison and the entire Jewish community there migrated
for the most part north is your family migrated here they stay in that area we moved we moved in the summer of 55 and I attended Hertz a high called Talmud Torah which was the Jewish Hebrew school was confirmed there and we attended goodness ah from synagogue which was a Orthodox synagogue my grandfather my father's father was the gay bi and I was bar Mitzvahed and that that synagogue get to go to Sasha where was that location at the time it was located on Forest Avenue and literally right in front of the her psychical Tama Toa Hebrew school can you walk us through a little
bit about the history of or what happened to a good a sock him well a good a sock and you know it's everybody moved north for whatever reasons they chose not to or couldn't I was too young to know all the politics of shills which is another world in itself and at we when we moved north we stayed as members of good a soccer for a short while but then it I can't remember specifically I was telling young teenager but we would join sheriff Israel and we remain there and that's not still my wife Anna still remembers that Sheriff ISM to this day I think
but Sherrod a good a soccer physically the physical plant is has been torn down because the i-45 interstate right railing to the right through in fact my first home that I would remember on space Street is also a demolished now my grandparents and my one of my uncles and his family lived on the street that was just south of the synagogue called wind Elton and poor portion of that Street is still there and the portion that my family lived on is still there and it's really amazing to drive down that street and see when you were a student either junior high high school what kind
of things were you interested in obviously besides scholarship but what else were you interested in well I don't know I was athletic I mean I was not an athlete that would be varsity but I like to play where I could with your friends and pickup games is spending especially on Park Row we would always have kids it was a lot of children in the neighborhood you know of similar age and we play different things football or whatever ride bikes so for that someone go to the theater you know the forest Avenue theater which fact just recently have sold I read somewhere was built I'm not
sure exactly it was summer fifty-fifty water stuff like that and and they always back then had you know Saturday programs for children kids cereals and yo-yo contests and all kinds of fun things and then you can see it you know a movie and one thing that kind of strikes me and I always think about this is that back then waited streetcars running on Rails kind of like dart isn't happen back then it was and there were the early streetcar but going straight down Forest Avenue and today we would walk you know but this kids walking three or four blocks was like they're walking up you
know three miles so we were all lazy and and I remembered getting out of the theater one day and the fare was I thought was four cents to go home which was only about six blocks had planned you know with the money I had that I could have enough you know money left to get on the streetcar and I got on and the the streetcar operator said I'm sorry but their fares gone up to a nickel I can't let you on so I had to walk home that was so upset they've brought some of those streetcars back rich religion gets great check it out for
a nickel though no that's true after where did you graduate high school what school well I'm as I said I went to the eighth grade and Forest Avenue and then we moved north to your street called stick turd which is a block north of walnut lane 65 forty sticker and which was about two blocks from Hillcrest High School and I went to Hillcrest High School my siblings that my brother and his sister aged four years younger than the other and we're also a block away from the Preston Hollow elementary scope and so I went to Hillcrest High School and did pretty well and you know
in academics and participated in intramural sports and so forth went out for football that mother quashed that because she was afraid I was going to have a broken leg or something she might have been right so and you ain't I said did you go into college graduated Hillcrest went to the University of Texas in Austin pledged a yabba-doo to run chapter was one of 32 pledges one of 13 only that were initiated the year when I was there we were on social probation because of the misdeeds of the year before academically so we had no parties and all I remember of my my green year
was nothing other than just being pledged in haste and so forth got initiated and decided that Texas was just too big for me and then I'm transferred back transferred back home went to SMU and graduated SMU with the green with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and well what were your first couple of jobs with that well here my first job was says chemist to work for Magnolia chemical company I was their chief chemist was also their only chemist and I worked for them from 1960 remember 1965 to 1967 about two years not really happy with it I thought that I wanted to be a dentist
and only you know and I think back because I'm not really sure I wanted to be a dentist but I think my mother wanted me to be a dentist our professional person well I did not get into dental school and didn't really try that hard but working in a lab convinced me that I didn't want to be a dentist because it was confining and as would be a you know someone working in a small small area that I felt more like a people person I think I hope I have been over the years but I during in the meantime while we I was working at
Magnolia chemical company I had a it was during the Vietnam War and I had an Occupational deferment because of the fact that we were making and selling to the federal government solutions that were used for prevention of bugs you know and things in their blankets DDT and so forth stuff that's out a lot now but you know at a point in time I my occupational deferment was over and I decided that I wanted to join the service I've joined a army reserve unit in Mesquite called the 94th General Hospital and I became and then I had to go on to active duty and under that
in the January 2nd it was a petty after three years of 1967 went to Fort Polk Louisiana for basic training and then on to supports in Houston in San Antonio for medical training the other this Masonic instead of a hospital unit and I went through all the training became a medic equivalent and then went back and spent six years in that program with two weeks every summer for summer camps and so forth and that's how thank you actually go overseas never won all the cities we were fortunate that we were not called up although mine unit during the Desert Storm and subsequent actions in recent
years were called up we were a General Hospital equivalent to a thousand med hospital so we would probably if we'd been Col have gone to someplace like Manila from the Philippines to manage stationary hospital there - anyway that was my stint in the service that anyway during when I got out of basic training in the spring of 67 I had had an opportunity for those several months to think about really what I wanted to do because I really wasn't happy in the chemical field they were never they treated me or Kennedy but it just wasn't rewarding for me and I decided to make a change
and Michael had cousins who were in the real estate business and spoke with him and they told me you know about the business I said I think I'd like to try that and I was met I was given an offer by a local real estate company a real estate broker Radek name is Harold column to join him and I get notice at Magnolia chemical and took a position at Magnolia that he'll column company and being green and not really knowing much of my business I had not gone through business school so he was very very nice and very supportive and gave me some jobs that
paid a salary in addition to what I might make on Commission and I managed his billboard sign company and it's a shopping center that he had on Central Express were just south of Mockingbird and I enjoyed it I and when worsen as as the real estate business goes it's always up and day I'm them to Dan when they got into a damp or not I took a position with a developer Franklin Koch and he was building office buildings on walnut lane just east of Stemmons freeway and these were suburban office buildings the first time in a long time you know that there was a lot
of construction outside of the central core for office by sympathia people were moving to suburban offices for convenience been close to their home and I was with him for a few years he also during the course Jordan in 1970 numbers actually yeah 6 2016 under 70 and he developed European crossroads which was Northwest Highway I was as I managed it to manage to he also developed in conjunction with the gentleman who had taken a position with him then gone through bankruptcy her major major developer aww our Arthur W back the notice build neck and we developed some office buildings in San Mateo California which I
also was responsible for the management of and it was a wonderful experience and then when he passed away and for a short while I was a stayed on and when he passed away his silent partner Rubin Ginsberg basically was all fella days left and I ultimately with his past ending with the decline of of that venture and was some associates that I had worked with and one of the final coat companies we formed our own company called GLA and associates and hooked up with some other people who had some connections with some financial institutions and we dipped some developments turnarounds you know in a difficult
real estate market and then that ended and then I just became an independent broker and that's what I've been since fatherly 1980-81 I managed properties for Mexican nationals just people basically really whilst I spend my career since 1980 so it's 37 years and I've been a broker since I actually joined here a column of the very beginning right after I left the chemical business I've been a broker almost 50 years okay so now I want to take you back a little bit and tell us how did you meet Susan your wife your now wife one of my dearest friends name was run Ronald fine Ron
Fineman factory still communicate he's lives in Chicago ma'am and he lived on North Haven just up the street about ten houses from this building and which is being remodeled now I'm gonna sending in pictures so he could see the transformation so I forget I had a lot of odd jobs over the years didn't really go into any of that but I've had a lot really interesting jobs if you're interested I'll tell you while I was in college I worked for these are just not necessarily chronologically but for roadway freight loading on working on docks when I was in high school I worked at summers for
the company called Auto Glass Company back in college and again I worked for the Russell Miller million company which is on Ivy souther V which was a company that manufactured American Beauty flower that was a summer job I worked for the southern LED smelter which was very controversial with sled contamination over and Westmorland a few years ago but I would go in and and take samples that they would provide me and run some spectrographic tests to give them the results of that another composition of their smelter how they were what they were producing I worked for a company called W Ness precision finishing that did
anodizing of aluminum and architectural colors similar I would go in take samples from their chemical baths take him upstairs and run analysis to give them that was on the composition of their chemicals in there there was just some of the odd jobs there was no others but anyway so I was working at the time and I got off work and I I was going to meet Ronnie in his house we were gonna go to dinner so anyway I went over there for some reason Ronnie had really damn cell phones by the way and so he either was the tank somewhere or wasn't home had some
other plans or something happened but Susan was was there with her friend of Cynthia fine Ronnie's sister sibling number one and two sisters age Cynthia was able to summon Phyllis the younger and I waited for a while and then I was getting hungry and I said well you would you guys like to go out for dinner and they said yes and that's basically you know I kind of caught the bug and became interested in called you know to see her again without Cynthia and you know in that you develop from there and she tells people about me running her over and the SME parking lot
or trying to that's not true but that's her story yes she did no she said she accidentally hit you whatever yeah prior to that meaning but anyway obviously it turned out well well been married 52 years guess we'll stay married for the foreseeable future and how is your family grown since then okay well we were not able to conceive children so we adopted two children first and oldest is our son Steven who we adopted through the family service and there was wonderful experience he came into our home he was like 1 day old and we moved to mystery called Regal Oaks we lived in a
couple other places starting off on Cole Avenue then Mary Meadow and then regalos there's a complex owned by David Frankfurt David shallow and Stephen was born in January the 27th of 1969 and he understood came in to realize that one day held subsequently we adopted Adrian our daughter through private attorney things changed in the adoption world and has sterile document changed as time progresses and the attorney was Sidney diamond and he called us said he had a expectant mother he was wanting to place her child and adoption we said we're in and she was born May the 13th 1974 and but she didn't come to
us immediately she I think went to a foster home for a while weeks months or whatever but anyway and they have all grown Steven is 48 Davey is 43 and Steven lives in the New York City he's very very successful he's the managing director of JP Morgan which is a phenomenal accomplishment since he never graduated high school and very proud of that we don't have a really close relationship unfortunately but that's you know maybe that will change he has two children Chloe the oldest and Harrison the younger and they both said they live and they live if anyone is watching it's familiar with Manhattan they
live in men and about two doors from the Flatiron deli on the corner of right off the corner of 22nd and Broadway and right around the corner from the Medicine Square Park adrià lives here and the area she lives in Farmers Branch she has a daughter Katie Katherine who's named after my mother whose name was Katherine and Isabella is her middle name was named after my father is a dog and she is ten and they're on their way back from Savannah Georgia as we speak where they went she is active in Girl Scouts and they went to the birthplace of Juliet lo who was the
founder of the Girl Scout program that's been a good experience for them absolutely I just want you to tell us a little bit about and your own words obviously how is Dallas changed since you were growing up well it's grown all in all directions and being in the real estate business you know obviously I don't see a lot of it you know well some people may not see but it's the growth has been phenomenal I mean we've got so many so much an infusion of people from everywhere the one thing that I always say is this is different is this I compared the changes of
where things are today compared to what that were as a child was that I mentioned earlier about living on Park Row and going out and playing football and with the kids in the neighborhood or something going bike riding we thought nothing about just running out the door and leaving everything wide open never had a worry in the world and nothing ever happened you know today unfortunately that just you don't do that he's it's just so much out there that just you have to be careful if that's one of the big changes of the you know the other than the physical growth I mean that's obvious
Dallas was when we lived north I've got a picture somewhere they have a aerial shot an oblique shot that's taking taken down from about that kid my roiling somewhere down south there's nothing but field it wasn't even the North Park might have been under construction what do you bear actually in one of the pictures in the first building you see this was taken sometime in the early 50s was our mid fifties actually was the meadows building at Lovers Lane the South delivers link that it's the first building of evening so the growth is phenomenal the traffic is horrendous relative to what it was but life's
good you know I love Dallas Sun yeah I wouldn't think of living anywhere else I'd like to go visit others know we like visiting but my roots are here and I love the city for my the life here you know we can our family here last thing I want to ask for mention is have you been involved in I know you have been tell us about a couple of things that you were involved in either Civic or religious organizations well Bob as a volunteer I've been active in some other organizations the first one that comes to mind was the B'nai B'rith youth and my children
my son was involved so I we became involved Susan became an advisor and I became chairman of the adult board for it one term and that was good experience and my son was the last Hollister gun of Texoma and the first I love the devil of whatever is the North Texas one now that's what it is nto don't you like Texas yeah and then I was a volunteer and became I never met a young worked with the Jewish War veterans of the year since I was a veteran from Susan's father brought us in because he was actively involved and we enjoyed it and I can
became very active non-violence Susan and I volunteered to do the bingo that they conducted you monthly at golden acres on Centreville and I called for 25 years they said they the folks there's like my colleague because of the timbre of my voice they could understand me where some people it wouldn't it didn't work and I enjoyed it and then it was a fun I also at said time in conjunction with Harvey art was harvest last night related to the organization that you bloom he was doing the newsletter and I said I'll help you I hired in 1986 I purchased my first computer so I became
a self-taught computer literate and I said I'll help you you know with the newsletter and I expanded on it and one of the national conventions they had I won on paper won best newspaper in the nation and the next year they appointed me in the national editor which was an honorary title cuz I had nothing to do when you do a good job again you get promoted yeah then somewhere in the middle of all that up until 1991 again are Susan's father brought us to ask me and Susan and some a few others to join to come to a meeting of the Dallas Hebrew free
loan association and we became they put the rush on us they were all octogenarians that they realized that they were literally fated find some younger blood that the organization would probably just died on the vine we liked what we saw in fact subsequently it was it is probably the most rewarding endeavor that I've ever had in my life to help people help themselves and so in 1991 they elected us to the board and then they just step back and Marvin Feldman it was King at the same time he was he became president the next term I I was elected president in several years laters 2001
Susan was elected president in the midst of all that then we got Susan I first got involved in in the International Association of Hebrew free loan forgiveness you know why trying to reinvent the wheel every every time there's sudden young people in organizations that have been doing this for years maybe we can learn from them we got really interested in the in that organization and then subsequently I became its president and then subsequently Susan became its president and she some Susan but then when she became president of the Hebrew free loan was the first female president in the history of the organization which was founded
in 1935 just as an assignment it's really interesting I have found through Susan's father he gave me some paperwork the original articles that were written to form the organization plus minutes from those couple meetings following board meetings in fact there with the Historical Society and my grandfather and my Uncle Sam are both listed as for in that first few meetings couple meetings attacking members no never enough they were not family members but they did donate 25 cents 50 cents or whatever it was it's a it's almost sheets and I was very proud to see that my dad was here he was a very hardworking and
worked from 5:00 in the morning to probably seven at night he had a grocery business and on Deep Ellum Elam that's pretty they did beheld the Ottoman how to pronounce it that's that's what they call it now and I had wonderful experiences about that too you know that there was a wonderful wonderful little community I have a lot of friends that I've known met over the years that all I had that their roots back on that those couple blocks where there was a predominantly Jewish merchants pawn shops and so forth but anyway as I mentioned a moment ago the Hebrew free loan was was really
a very very satisfying rewarding experience we were involved for about 20 22 23 years now we're in our 70s and others are doing whatever they did and we're satisfied that you know I'm not sure if I'm going to take out any other volunteer jobs I might you might the right men coming along can you sum it up for us about perhaps stating something that you or you feel you're the most proud of through the years I'm provided I'm only you know raising a family than being independent successful I'm proud of the work the volunteer work that I have done with Susan as well and that
we've given back you know to the community to kind of belong in am uniform and not share with you much different I'm now I'm sure there's some things that would be different but you know I'm satisfied I'm you know when I get ready to enter the next world I think I'll feel comfortable enough yeah provided something's left something behind hopefully I think so absolutely Thank You Helen for this it's been a very enlightening you