Bob and Betty Allen.

• Author: SWAGEL, WILL
• Position: Brief Article

"We've been very fortunate in the catastrophes of life," Bob Allen says, "all falling right where they were supposed to."

Allen, only half in jest, speaks in the comfortable offices of the boat construction and tour company, Allen Marine, situated on two waterfront acres in Sitka. While the Sitka economy, for instance, was rocked from the closure of the Alaska Pulp Corp. mill in the mid-1990s, Allen Marine was enjoying a growth period--and looking for welders just as the mill was laying off those skilled workers. Allen can recount other times that a seeming obstacle has turned out to be just what his company needed.

But listening to Allen's history it becomes clear that his tenacity and inventiveness, and the quality of his work, guaranteed his success, regardless of any extraneous catastrophes.

In three decades of business in Sitka, Bob Allen, together with his wife Betty, have built one of the most successful enterprises in town. Allen Marine vessels operate in Sitka, Juneau, Whittier and Seward--and just recently in the traffic-clogged waters of the commuter run from the New Jersey shore to Manhattan. Using their own vessels for nature tours, as well as selling the vessels to others, the company melds high-quality technical boat building to other enterprises of strong cultural and environmental relevance and sensitivity.

On top of it all they are a reliable source of scores of jobs, many of them year-round and paying a family wage.

Allen Marine is a major benefactor to a myriad of Sitka and Alaska organizations, repeatedly providing low or no cost water transportation. And the Allen family itself is another success story--all of the children grew up operating boats and helping the company grow. Three of the Allen's five children have careers in Sitka and Juneau. Sons Rob and Dave Allen reside in Sitka and head up Allen Marine's tourism and boat-building divisions.

Bob Allen "grew up in kind of a big shipyard," he says of his childhood in Nenana, where his father was in charge of maintenance for river-going cargo vessels loading from the Alaska Railroad. After Army service during the Korean War, Allen bought a plane on the GI Bill, intent on becoming an Alaskan Bush pilot. He flew tons of cargo and groceries to remote construction camps in the Kuskokwim Delta region, then decided the job was too much like glorified delivery truck driving. But aviation led Allen into airport construction--he was on an airport building crew at Sand Point...