As Allan Drew plugged away near the end of a race, he ran not only to run but to win.

‘When he could smell the finish line, when he was maybe five, six miles from the end, there was no more stopping,’ said Drew’s friend, John Allen. ‘There was no more slowing down.’

Competitive in both running and biking, Drew also set a goal at 60 years old to bike around 10 of the Finger Lakes before he turned 70. He completed nine, never able to complete the final trip before metastatic prostate cancer led to his death Friday.

Drew taught as a tropical forest ecology professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry for 30 years until last fall. His memorial service will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at the University United Methodist Church, which he attended for more than two decades.

Friends and family members remember Drew for his competitive nature in athletics but also for his quiet personality outside of sports. He held a passion for the environment and traveled around the world for his work.

Drew taught a tropical forest ecology course for more than two decades, and it took him and nearly 15 students to Dominica in the West Indies each spring. It was Drew’s favorite course, said David Newman, chair of ESF’s Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management. Drew also performed botanical research in Costa Rica and traveled to Puerto Rico.

After Drew contracted prostate cancer nearly 15 years ago, he wrote a book titled ‘My Race with Prostate Cancer, A Runner’s Journal,’ unveiling how he came to grips with the disease, Newman said. Drew treated the illness like he treated his athletic endeavors, Newman said.

‘He fought it very hard,’ he said.

Though Drew retired in December, he agreed to come back in the fall if he was physically able to, Newman said. Drew taught right up until last semester with the cancer.

‘It was hard, but it was very important for him he finish the course,’ Newman said. ‘And he did.’

Drew had two distinct sides to his personality that existed compatibly, said his widow, Beth. In a room full of people, he was quiet. But when he ran and biked, he displayed a competitive pride, Beth said.

‘He seemed to be able to take these differing aspects and create them comfortably within himself,’ she said.

Beth and her two children took mini-vacations to watch Allan compete in track meets around upstate New York, ranging from Albany to Rochester, Beth said. When Allan’s daughter and son were seniors in high school, he also took them along with his students to the West Indies.

Five months before his cancer diagnosis, Allan and his family took a cross-country trip to Tucson, Ariz., where they spent a fall semester in 1995 while he taught a class. The family members didn’t have a lot of their normal responsibilities because they lived in a rental house and traveled through the Grand Canyon, Beth said.

‘That was a magnificent time in our lives,’ she said.

Allan underwent surgery the summer after he discovered he had cancer, and his family thought it had vanished until it resurfaced five and a half years later, Beth said. For nine years, Allan went through radiation and hormone treatments. He started chemotherapy when his son graduated from Syracuse University in 2009 but still managed to teach a brand new course, Beth said.

‘He absolutely lived with the cancer,’ she said. ‘He did not let the cancer dictate his life.’

Carol Boll, who knew Allan from church for 25 years, still saw him swimming laps in Archbold Gymnasium last semester.

‘All of his friends knew what he was dealing with,’ said Boll, a writer in SU’s Office of Public Affairs. ‘But he was determined to live life on his own terms, and he was determined to do what he enjoyed as long as he possibly could.’

At church, Allan bought ‘boxes and boxes’ of fair trade coffees and sold them to members to ensure that Latin-American workers received fair wages, Boll said.

Allan and Boll co-chaired the church’s creation stewardship group, whose members replaced the church’s light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and reduced the amount of used paper products, Boll said.

A quiet yet knowledgeable man, Allan also showed a film several times a year at the church about environmental issues, such as global warming, hydrofracking and food security, Boll said.

‘He was very conscious of sustainable issues and very careful to practice what he preached in that regard,’ she said.

Barbara Fought, an SU associate professor of broadcast and digital journalism who knew Allan for 18 years, also recalled Allan’s dedication from church. Allan would meditate twice a day, every day, which she said takes a lot of discipline and time management.

His passion about justice and concern for the environment allowed Fought to become more conscious about taking care of the environment as well, she said.

‘He really walked his talk,’ she said. ‘His life embodied what was valuable to him.’

mcboren@syr.edu

 

Published on February 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm