CHARLES ALLEN

Dr. Charles Allen, former Sonoma mayor and city councilman, died Sept. 20

at a Ventura hospital after a brief illness. He was 78.

He was a retired psychiatrist and mental health administrator at Camarillo

State Hospital and returned there to practice geriatric psychiatry from 1977

to 1987.

He also had served as medical director at Metropolitan State Hospital,

program director at Napa State Hospital, and director of the Mental Health

Department for Santa Barbara County.

Earlier, he practiced general medicine in Sonoma. He served on the City

Council from 1962 to 1966, including a term as mayor. He also served as

chairman of the Bay Area Transportation Study Commission in 1965.

Allen grew up in Aberdeen, S.D. After serving in the Navy during World War

II, he received his medical degree from Stanford University in 1951. He also

earned a law degree at San Francisco Law School in 1960. He completed

residency training in psychiatry in 1964.

He went on to be a founding trustee of the North Bay Chapter of the

Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled. He was a fellow of the

College of Legal Medicine, and vice president of the American Union of

Physician and Dentists.

Allen is survived by his wife, Kate Allen of Ventura; sons, Charles Allen

Jr. of Hilliard, Ohio, Wilson Allen of Mill Valley, and Brice Allen of Santa

Rosa; daughters, Lisa Cimino of Santa Rosa, Caroline McMurtry of Santa

Barbara, and Katherine Jenkins of New York, N.Y.; and six grandchildren.

Private family services will be held today in Ventura.