Psychology pioneer, UM graduate Doris Twitchell Allen dies at 100 Educator was also staunch proponent of world peace

Renowned psychologist and University of Maine graduate and benefactor Doris Twitchell Allen died Thursday morning in Virginia at age 100.

While she was educated and considered a pioneer in the field of psychodrama, Allen, who in 1979 was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, also founded the Children’s International Summer Village, a volunteer organization that promotes world peace and cultural understanding by bringing together children from all over the world.

“It’s very easy to talk about peace. It’s another thing to work for it,” she once told a gathering of teen-agers from around the world at a 1996 meeting of the summer village in her native Old Town.

Those who knew her said she lived by those words.

And such words inspired many, including Susan Allen Nann, who, like her grandmother, earned her doctorate and worked in international conflict resolution, most recently at the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based human rights group founded by former President Jimmy Carter.

“I learned so many things from her,” Nann, 31, said from the family home in Sterling, Va. “Most visibly, I learned from her commitment to conflict resolution and international understanding.”

Before moving to Virginia about 10 years ago, Allen lived in Trenton, Maine, for many years. She worked summers as an adjunct professor at the University of Maine psychology department. While at Maine she taught psychodrama, in which participants act out situations in their lives for the purpose of gaining personal insight.

During her career, she was also a professor of psychology at the University of Cincinnati.

But it was her impact on Maine’s land grant university that was perhaps the most significant.

The Doris Twitchell Allen Village, a 200-bed student housing complex at the university, was opened in 1991 in honor of the esteemed graduate, who earned her bachelor’s degree in 1923 and her master’s degree three years later.

Scott Anchors, who was residence life director when the Allen buildings were built, was also on the committee that named the new hall after the petite and dynamic alumna who had touched so many lives.

“She symbolized the thing we often talk about … that one person can make a significant difference,” Anchors said. “The [Children’s International Summer Village] is a simple idea that made an impact all over the globe.”

As a result, Allen’s death was felt worldwide, with a flurry of e-mails coming into a CISV bulletin board.

From Canada, one man wrote of meeting Allen at a convention in 1997 and even dancing with her, even though Allen was in her 90s: “Thank you Doris for giving us a way to learn about each other and in so doing to bring the world that much closer to each and every one of us.”

From Brazil came this message: “And thanks Doris for your PEACE seed that you planted in this world … Definitely we need it.”

Allen’s influence was felt by young people close to home, as well.

University of Maine professor Ann Schonberger’s son Ben was in the first group from Maine to travel abroad as part of the CISV program in 1987.

Schonberger, director of the university’s Women’s Studies Programs, said Ben, now 31, was all the better for his experience in Sweden, where he learned of the culture by making friends.

“He grew up to be an intelligent and peaceful kid,” Schonberger said. “There were certainly some other things in his life that made him that way, but this was a wonderful experience.”

John Greenman, past president of the Maine chapter of the CISV, which Allen helped start, remembered her as having a warm smile and strong heart; a woman who left lasting impressions wherever she went. Once asked by a university graduate student to describe Allen, Greenman came up with this:

“As great as her contribution to world peace and intercultural understanding has been, perhaps of even more importance, to those of us lucky enough to have known her, is her role as an inspiration and a model. Doris’ personal commitment and energy are highly contagious.”

Allen is predeceased by her husband, Erastus Smith Allen. She is survived by her only son, Erastus “Rusty” Twitchell Allen, who lives in Virginia, and two grandchildren.

Funeral services are not yet complete.

NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli contributed to this report.