Mankato man's memory lives on through MSU endowment
May 23—Wendy and Sandy Allen of Mankato didn't want their son Nicholas's life to be without a purpose.
Nicholas Allen was born in 1981 with a rare disease called Coffin-Siris syndrome. He died Oct. 24, 2015, at age 34, having only been expected to live six months, his mother recalls.
"He was an incredibly happy child," Wendy Allen said. "He was very, very loving. He really showed you what unconditional love was all about. He touched everyone's lives immensely. We didn't want Nick's life to go without a purpose. He was here to teach all of us."
When Nick died, his parents started the Nicholas Allen Memorial Scholarship at Minnesota State University with memorial funds. The funds lasted eight years.
Since 2016, eight MSU nursing students have received scholarships for a total of $12,500 in funds distributed. Logan Howe is among them, receiving $1,500 in the fall of 2022.
Howe learned about Allen by reading about him at the MSU Clinical Sciences Building. Later, Howe was searching for scholarship opportunities and came across the Allen opportunity.
When the memorial funds ran out, a donor stepped forward and donated $50,000 to MSU. The donor, Kyle Gorman, was a classmate of Wendy Allen's and a fraternity buddy of Sandy Allen's.
This time, the $50,000 in donated funds went into an endowment.
"Kyle has the biggest heart," said Lori Pickell-Stangel, director of development for the college of allied health and nursing. "He never met Nick in person but flew back for his funeral.
"He decided he wanted to do this for Sandy and Wendy so Nick's legacy wouldn't end. He surprised them and announced he was going to continue the scholarship and endow it so Nick's memory would live on forever," Pickell-Stangel said.
Nicholas Allen was one of just 17 kids in the world with Coffin-Siris syndrome when he was born. Now hundreds of children have been diagnosed with this crippling disease.
Nicholas developed hundreds of tumors over the years including several spinal cord tumors, tumors on his nerves and, by the time he died, one on his tongue. He went from being a happy, running child to a boy who could no longer walk, Wendy Allen said.
Throughout the years of being cared for by round-the-clock staff in their Mankato home, Nicholas managed to leave an impact on his care team, including MSU nursing students.
An MSU junior, Howe said the scholarship helped him focus on school rather than working to pay for school, and that he chose nursing as his major because it allows him to care for people.
"I'm really thankful for the scholarship and the family," Howe said. "I hope their story lives long. The legacy of Nicholas Allen will continue now for many years to come. I'm really excited to see how that has an impact on future generations and students here at Mankato."
