Allan Lentini

Allan Lentini passed away at age 77 on Monday, November 8th, 2021, in Seattle, Washington. 

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in New Milford, New Jersey. He graduated from Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, NJ, where he lettered in track and field and choir. He commuted to Manhattan College, graduating in 1965 with a degree in Electrical/Nuclear Engineering. That was followed by advanced degrees including an MBA, Masters in Psychology and Doctorate in Education from Fairleigh Dickinson University. 

When he was teaching math at Paramus Catholic High School, the school secretary took it upon herself to introduce him to her daughter. Denise and Allan married the next year and started a family. They were married for 53 years at the time of his death. 

In 1975, he answered an ad for a job at “a small upstate New York college”, and relocated to Ithaca. He planned to stay for two years, then return to New Jersey. Thirty two years later he retired from that small upstate New York college, Cornell University, and stayed in Ithaca for another 12 years, moving to Seattle in 2020 to be near his grandchildren. 

He worked in business and senior administration roles across the University starting in the College of Architecture Art and Planning. Other roles included Project Manager for the Statler Hotel and Conference Center build, Interim Director of Human Resources for the University, and University Space Planner and orchestrator of the ‘Sage Hall Shuffle’. He retired in 2007, after 10 years as Director of Administration at the College of Industrial and Labor Relations. He received the peer-nominated George Peter Staff Achievement Award in 2005. 

Allan was a passionate sailor who also enjoyed golfing, camping, and rooting for Cornell Hockey. He frequently took friends and co-workers out on his Catalina 27, Strega del Vento, and was regularly found at the dock “improving” the boat. He built many close friendships among his sailing buddies and dock neighbors. 

Allan was a woodworker by hobby and used his skills to build beautiful patio furniture. When he became a grandfather, he devoted himself to building dozens of wooden toys, a dollhouse, stroller, and child-size chairs. He was always available to share his handyman skills with neighbors and friends. Sometimes that meant hanging shelves or fixing decks, and sometimes that meant getting covered in Sikaflex in the boat yard. 

He was never “a little” involved. When the kids were in Boy Scouts, he joined the parent committee and went along on backpacking trips, including two weeks at Philmont High Adventure Scout Ranch. At the Ithaca Yacht Club, where his boat was moored, he led the Harbors and Docks committee. A parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena Church, he helped out on capital projects and planning. He spent years coaching youth sports, especially Ithaca Youth Hockey. 

He is survived by his wife Denise, now also in Seattle, children and their spouses, Marc (Maura), Matthew (Daniel), and Paul (Tamara), two grandchildren, Kevin and Jane, and his mother-in-law, Kathleen Hall. He was preceded in death by his parents, Alfonso and Ann Lentini, his brother, Denis Lentini, and father-in-law, Donald Hall.

A virtual memorial will be held December 12, 4:00pm ET. Contact allans.memorial.2021@gmail.com for details. Interment will take place in the summer of 2022 in Ithaca. In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting the Parkinson’s Foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation or your local Hospice organization.

 A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on August 2, 2022 at 11am in St. Catherine of Siena, with burial to follow in Calvary Cemetery.  

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