B. Allen McCormick

Benjamin Allen McCormick passed away on March 24, 2026, in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the age of 93. Allen was born in Muncie, Indiana, on March 18, 1933, to Cassius Dean and Olive Allen McCormick.

Allen was a 1951 graduate of Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, participating in track and cross country, and serving as class president in both his junior and senior years. He graduated from Kenyon College in 1955 with a degree in economics. While at Kenyon, Allen was the secretary of his Beta Theta Pi fraternity chapter, a member of the Kenyon lacrosse team, an Air Force ROTC cadet, and secretary-treasurer of the school’s honorary Senior Society.

Allen’s parents instilled in him a love of aviation, and he earned his pilot’s license at age 19, eventually flying over 500 hours as a private pilot. After graduating from Kenyon, he attended navigator training school in Harlingen, Texas, where he became a First Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. He served as a navigator for an Air/Sea Rescue Squadron in Labrador, Canada and was later promoted to the rank of Captain.

After separation from the Air Force, Allen returned to Muncie and worked as the accountant for his family’s business, McCormick Brothers Corporation of Albany, where he led the modernization of the bookkeeping system by installing a punch card posting machine. He eventually served as the company’s president and chairman of the board of directors. During his tenure, Allen was instrumental in establishing a secondary business, WADY Industries, in Maquoketa, Iowa. After selling McCormick Brothers Corporation in 1978, Allen served as vice president and chief financial officer for several companies in Lafayette and Indianapolis.

Throughout his life, Allen was an active volunteer supporter of the communities and organizations to which he belonged. In 1971, he was a founding board member of Eastern Indiana Community Television, Inc., which successfully established a public television station in Muncie. He served for many years on the Burris Alumni Association and was elected to the association’s Hall of Fame in 2012. He was a class agent for his Kenyon class of 1955 and a member of the Kenyon Fund Executive Committee. He served as president of the Brendonwood Country Club and the Windridge Neighborhood Association and as treasurer of Northminster United Methodist Church. He was also on the board of the Indiana Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation and was recognized for his outstanding support and leadership.

Allen enjoyed weekly fitness workouts, playing tennis, golf, bridge, and swimming in lakes and oceans throughout the world. These included Lake Huron at Goderich, Ontario, the frigid waters at Goose Bay, Labrador, and Antarctica. He also loved to travel. Inspired by his parents, he spent three months hitchhiking through Europe in 1952 with his sister, Audrey, and a cousin. Later, he traveled extensively with his wife, Mary Ann, visiting all fifty states and all seven continents.

Allen married Patricia Moore Young in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 26, 1961. They had three sons: Benjamin, Austin, and Andrew (Michelle) McCormick. On November 16, 1974, Allen married Mary Ann McNary Miller, widow of David Charles Miller, and gained four stepsons: Douglas (Robin), Steven (Sandi), Matthew (Jean), and David Miller. Mary Ann and all seven sons survive, as well as Allen’s brother, Arch (Cindy) McCormick and fifteen grandchildren: Jacob (Sarah) and Emily McCormick, David, Grace, Mackenzie, Evan, Thomas, Abigail and Natalie Miller, Alexandra Miller Onakoya (Afolabi), Zachariah and Courtney Naser, Alexandra Talford, Brittany Olson, and Emily Saunders.

Allen had two prognostications about life on planet Earth: 1) education will be the salvation of mankind, and 2) the future of mankind lies in outer space. In lieu of flowers or any other remembrances, please consider a donation to Kenyon College, Northminster Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, or the Indiana Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

Private services will be held for the internment of his ashes at Union Cemetery in Eaton, Indiana and at the family mausoleum in the Maitland Cemetery, Goderich, Ontario.