Allen Wayne Townsend of Seal Rock was born in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey on February 8, 1957, and died after a five year long ordeal with cancer on April 23, 2021. He was introduced to salmon fishing in Newport by his Grandfather, Clarence Faulkner. By 1980, he had begun his career as a commercial salmon fisherman in Newport. He was the owner/operator of the F/V Sunwest. After the total closure of salmon fishing for the year 2006, he became one of the first participants in the NOAA CROOS program, and for several years was one of the top providers of salmon DNA and scale samples for scientists studying the migration patterns of Chinook Salmon along the Oregon coast.
He is survived by his parents Clarence "Ron" Townsend and Alta "Val" Townsend of South Beach, his brother Dr. Ronald Townsend of Denver, Colorado, and sister Diane Biggs of Corvallis, Oregon. He will be missed by the fleet and his many friends. His wish was that any remembrances be in the form of donations to organizations dedicated to the welfare of animals.
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