In Memory of
Allen Louis
Gorin
Gorin
2023
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Obituary for Allen Louis Gorin
The Family writes --
Dr. Allen Louis Gorin Ph.D. of Sarasota FL (formerly of Berkeley Heights, NJ) died on October 14, 2023 holding his wife Alida’s hand in a NJ hospital, one month shy of his 70th birthday.
A loving husband, Allen built a lasting legacy with his life, family and career. A father of three, Allen was a great cheerleader to his children, supporting and encouraging them to define and follow their own paths. Later in life, he was a doting, affectionate grandfather; no grandchild’s nose was safe from grandpa, whether face to face on the floor or on zoom.
Allen is survived by Alida, his wife of 48 years, and three children and their spouses: Dr. David Gorin Ph.D. and Dr. Katherine Mullen M.D., Kira Farman and Andrew Farman, and Dr. Craig Gorin Ph.D. and Amy Gorin. He leaves five beloved grandchildren: Eliana, Adam, Ezra, Eden, and Emma, along with his brothers Edward, Robert, and Nathan and a cherished extended family.
The son of Harry and Esther Gorin, Allen was raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn as the third of four brothers. The grandchild of immigrants, he worked in the family hardware store on Avenue A in Manhattan mixing paint colors, stringing Venetian blinds, cutting window shades, and making keys. A first-generation college student, Allen earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from SUNY Stony Brook and his Ph.D. in mathematics from CUNY Graduate Center.
Allen was a pioneering researcher in the field of computer speech and language processing, authoring over 109 papers and 44 granted patents. In 21 years at Bell Laboratories, his work led to breakthroughs in parallel processing for supercomputers and in enabling computers to understand human speech. The latter was nationally deployed in AT&T’s “How May I Help You” customer service system, and paved the way for modern voice recognition platforms like Siri. He was awarded the AT&T Science and Technology Medal in 2002, named an IEEE Fellow in 2005, and was a visiting scholar at ATR Laboratory in Japan (1994) and at MIT (2002).
Following a call to service in the aftermath of the 09/11 attack, he moved to the U.S. Department of Defense as Director of the Human Language Technology Research Lab. After retiring from the government, he served as a senior advisor to the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. Allen proudly mentored the next generation of scientists as a Ph.D. thesis advisor to students at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers, and the University of Erlangen (Germany).
An avid science fiction reader, in retirement Allen created a massive digital trove of vintage copies of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He dove deeply into family history, digitizing photo collections and playing with tools from the now-closed family hardware store. He loved to share good food at a table with friends and family, particularly hamburgers and Chinese food (familiar to anyone in NJ suburbia).
Confronted with multiple health problems in these last months, he dove into the gritty, hard work of building strength. In his last week, he left us with memories of flexed muscle power poses and hugs with grandchildren. May his memory be for a blessing.
Donations in Allen’s memory may be made to the American Friends of Magen David Adom https://afmda.org/
Dr. Allen Louis Gorin Ph.D. of Sarasota FL (formerly of Berkeley Heights, NJ) died on October 14, 2023 holding his wife Alida’s hand in a NJ hospital, one month shy of his 70th birthday.
A loving husband, Allen built a lasting legacy with his life, family and career. A father of three, Allen was a great cheerleader to his children, supporting and encouraging them to define and follow their own paths. Later in life, he was a doting, affectionate grandfather; no grandchild’s nose was safe from grandpa, whether face to face on the floor or on zoom.
Allen is survived by Alida, his wife of 48 years, and three children and their spouses: Dr. David Gorin Ph.D. and Dr. Katherine Mullen M.D., Kira Farman and Andrew Farman, and Dr. Craig Gorin Ph.D. and Amy Gorin. He leaves five beloved grandchildren: Eliana, Adam, Ezra, Eden, and Emma, along with his brothers Edward, Robert, and Nathan and a cherished extended family.
The son of Harry and Esther Gorin, Allen was raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn as the third of four brothers. The grandchild of immigrants, he worked in the family hardware store on Avenue A in Manhattan mixing paint colors, stringing Venetian blinds, cutting window shades, and making keys. A first-generation college student, Allen earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from SUNY Stony Brook and his Ph.D. in mathematics from CUNY Graduate Center.
Allen was a pioneering researcher in the field of computer speech and language processing, authoring over 109 papers and 44 granted patents. In 21 years at Bell Laboratories, his work led to breakthroughs in parallel processing for supercomputers and in enabling computers to understand human speech. The latter was nationally deployed in AT&T’s “How May I Help You” customer service system, and paved the way for modern voice recognition platforms like Siri. He was awarded the AT&T Science and Technology Medal in 2002, named an IEEE Fellow in 2005, and was a visiting scholar at ATR Laboratory in Japan (1994) and at MIT (2002).
Following a call to service in the aftermath of the 09/11 attack, he moved to the U.S. Department of Defense as Director of the Human Language Technology Research Lab. After retiring from the government, he served as a senior advisor to the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. Allen proudly mentored the next generation of scientists as a Ph.D. thesis advisor to students at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers, and the University of Erlangen (Germany).
An avid science fiction reader, in retirement Allen created a massive digital trove of vintage copies of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He dove deeply into family history, digitizing photo collections and playing with tools from the now-closed family hardware store. He loved to share good food at a table with friends and family, particularly hamburgers and Chinese food (familiar to anyone in NJ suburbia).
Confronted with multiple health problems in these last months, he dove into the gritty, hard work of building strength. In his last week, he left us with memories of flexed muscle power poses and hugs with grandchildren. May his memory be for a blessing.
Donations in Allen’s memory may be made to the American Friends of Magen David Adom https://afmda.org/