\t\t\tAllan Paul Mellis \t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tOBITUARY\t\t<\/p>\n
Allan Mellis died peacefully at Illinois Masonic Hospital on Sunday, April 26th, 2026, from complications of a stroke suffered five years ago. He was eighty-one years old.<\/p>\n
\nAllan Paul Mellis was born on December 11, 1944, to Harry Mellis and Ada (Raiffa) Mellis. Originally from the Bronx, New York, Allan grew up in Flushing Meadows, Queens.<\/p>\n
\nAllan attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, graduating in 1965 with a B.A. in mathematics, with distinction. In 1967, Allan received a M.S. in computer science from Purdue University.<\/p>\n
\nAfter graduation from Purdue, Allan took a job with IBM, where he worked for the next 25 years. Initially based in White Plains, Allan soon transferred to Chicago, where he was to reside for the rest of his life. While at IBM, he wrote a memo that led to creation of IBM\u2019s desktop publishing department, of which he was the first employee.<\/p>\n
\nShortly after moving to Chicago, Allan got involved with the Wrightwood Neighbors Association. He joined the WNA board in 1974 \u2013 serving as planning chair from 1974\u201376 and president from 1976\u201378 \u2013 and remained on the board for over 50 years. Allan helped to start the Taste of Lincoln Avenue street festival, which has served as a model for similar events around the city. Allan also founded the Friends of the Lincoln Park Library, spearheading a successful campaign for a new branch of the Chicago Public Library. Allan served for many years as a member of DePaul University\u2019s Neighborhood Advisory Committee. He was known as \u201cthe mayor of Lincoln Park\u201d. Allan\u2019s community papers are archived at the DePaul library, filling 93 boxes.<\/p>\n
\nIn 1996, after retiring from IBM, he joined the Forest Preserve District of Cook County as Director of Planning and Development. He managed projects such as the renovation of Whealan Pool and the construction of the Little Red School House Nature Center. He retired from the Forest Preserve in 2010.<\/p>\n
\nAllan was a passionate collector of ice cream memorabilia, accumulating more than 30,000 items during his lifetime. A portion of his collection has been on display at the Museum of Science and Industry for over fifty years. In 1982, Allan co-founded the Ice Screamers, an association of ice cream collectors. He was known as \u201cMr. Ice Cream\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nAllan is survived by his wife, Linda Polacheck Mellis; their two sons, David and Daniel; David\u2019s wife Dena Molnar and their children Oren and Louisa; Daniel\u2019s wife April Sheridan and their son Samuel; and his sister Marilyn Longman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allan Paul Mellis OBITUARY Allan Mellis died peacefully at Illinois Masonic Hospital on Sunday, April 26th, 2026, from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":581702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-763209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116492509288453006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}