Ross Van Allen

Ross Allen, affectionately known as Pye, passed away peacefully in his sleep late Monday, March 20th, 2023 at his home after a years-long battle with Leukemia. You knew Pye for his kindness, for his calm manner, for his easy smile, and for how very caring he was to the people he loved. You saw him walking his grandson to and from school. You saw him pouring wine at all sorts of events around the Peninsula over the past forty years. But there are a lot of things you don’t know about him.

Pye was born November 16th, 1949 in Tokyo, Japan, and moved to Pacific Grove in the early 1950s. His relationship with his biological family was fraught, but he knew how to find family, and when he married Cathie Spindler in 2000, he became a part of her large, loving, family. They divorced amicably in 2003, and he remained an important part of Cathie’s daughter’s lives. He is survived by Cathie’s daughters, who he considered his daughters, Heather Kimberly Spindler Proulx Lazare, her husband Benjamin Eugene Lazare, and their children Jack Holman Tor Lazare and Elodie Spindler Gigi Lazare; and Lauren Spindler Proulx Leonoff and her husband Nicholas Leonoff.

Pye was a man with a Forrest Gumpian past–he seemed to have been everywhere at once. He streaked his Carmel high school graduation. He attended Monterey Peninsula College. He knew the Grateful Dead. He attended UC Santa Barbara and was living in Isla Vista during the riots in 1970. He sold drugs to Hunter S. Thompson (and is even name dropped in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas “Ross Allen had the Old Psychiatrist’s Club”). He and his friends watched Jimi Hendrix from the front row at Berkeley Community Theater in 1970–they got the tickets that were supposed to go to writers from Rolling Stone Magazine who didn’t show up. At twenty-six, he was running drugs over the border and was arrested in Mexico and imprisoned in the Palacio de Lecumberri, also known as The Black Palace. He was part of a famous prisoner exchange in 1977 and was able to come back to the U.S. after three intense years in Mexican prison. Through the support of friends, he started work in the restaurant and hospitality business and began to restart his life. He worked at everyone’s favorite Carmel spot, Mediterranean Market. He had an incredible palette and studied hard to become a Master Sommelier. He was the wine buyer for Whole Foods when they first moved into Monterey. He worked in the wine business for years and developed his own book of exciting wines that he sold throughout the Peninsula. He eventually became the sole wine rep for Robert Talbott, before they were bought by Gallo.

In his later years, he found Buddhism and developed his daily meditation practice that helped him through the pain of cancer and treatment. When his home burned down in the Carmel Fire in August 2020, he moved in with his daughter Heather and her family in Pacific Grove. He helped care for Jack and Elodie during the pandemic and after, tackling dishes that a family of five can make daily while living and working at home. He sorted laundry like a pro and helped lighten the demands on Heather and Ben. His daily phone calls with his daughter Lauren, helped ground them both during the challenges of the past few years. He often reminded her, “heaven and hell is between your ears,” a wise mantra from someone who had lived a very colorful life! Miraculously, for someone with nearly no immune system, he never got Covid! He used his Buddhist practice to help him live in the present, something so easy to do when surrounded by children.

He told a friend, “I want to live long enough so my grandchildren remember me.” They do Pye, we all will forever.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his name to the Pacific Grove Library Friends and Foundation.