Pierce Allman, Father of Dallas Real Estate, RIP

It is with heavy hearts we report on the death of Pierce Allman, co-owner of the eponymous real estate firm Allie Beth Allman & Associates. He was a Dallas-based journalist, public relations executive, community leader, philanthropist, civic enthusiast, long-time resident of Highland Park, and SMU alumnus.

Allman died Friday, November 25, the day after Thanksgiving. He had been on hospice care for several months.

Allman was the co-founder, along with his wife Allie Beth, of Allie Beth Allman & Associates. The firm’s roughly 360 agents focus on Park Cities, Preston Hollow, North and East Dallas, and Southlake luxury real estate. The firm was acquired in 2015 for an undisclosed sum by Warren Buffett’s HomeServices of America Inc. Allie Beth Allman has done $3.2 billion in sales for the year.

“Pierce Allman was very much the strength and backbone of this company,” said Keith Conlon, president of Allie Beth Allman & Associates. “The name on the sign is Allie Beth, but it truly was Allie Beth and Pierce Allman. He was a marketing genius and managed the business side so Allie Beth could sell. Yet he was content — happy even — to let Allie Beth have the limelight. A brilliant, humble man who never ceased to amaze us with his depth of knowledge on just about everything, and his dapper dress, Pierce Allman will be sorely missed at this company. We appreciated him to the core.”

While the firm’s namesake, Allie Beth, remains the sales powerhouse behind its tremendous success, she readily admits it was Pierce who helped promote, grow, and expand the firm to the success it holds today. Of note, Pierce was a few years ahead of Mary Frances Burleson at Highland Park High School. Burleson, who started as Ebby Halliday’s secretary, died Sunday, November 27, at the age of 87. She was the President of the Ebby Halliday Companies, also owned by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices of America Inc.

Boy Scout, Journalist, and Father of the Year

Born in 1934, Pierce Allman grew up in Highland Park and attended Highland Park High School where he was the highest-ranking Boy Scout in the country at one time. (He earned 104 merit badges!) After graduating from HPHS in 1954, he enrolled at Southern Methodist University, earning a bachelor’s degree in radio/TV. Allman then served in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command and worked as a disc jockey at local radio stations.

While employed by WFAA on Nov. 22, 1963, Allman became the first reporter to broadcast an on-scene report after witnessing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

He would often talk about his “Dallas experience” of encountering Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas School Book Depository on Nov. 22, moments after President Kennedy was shot. The eager young reporter rushed into the building and actually encountered Oswald standing in a doorway — not knowing he was the president’s assassin — and asked him where a telephone was so he could phone in the story. Ever polite and gracious, Allman actually thanked Oswald and then filed his live report from the scene of the assassination.

Hold Each Other Close, Be Grateful, and Love

In 1965, SMU President Willis Tate recruited Allman to head the university’s alumni affairs office. Allman launched a public relations division at TracyLocke advertising agency, winning numerous awards before founding his own marketing firm, Allman & Co.

In 2003, he helped his wife create Allie Beth Allman & Associates, where he was director of marketing. They were married 58 years at the time of his death. They remained one of the most loving, devoted couples in Texas.

The contributions of Pierce Allman to the Dallas philanthropic community are numerous and incredible. He and his wife went beyond “practicing what they preached” to their agents.

“If you live in a community, you need to be a giving part of that community and active in it,” Allman said many times.

Allman has been a fellow at the Dallas Historical Society and served on the boards of the S.M. Wright Foundation, which he co-founded, the Old Red Museum, and the Park Cities Historical Society. He has received numerous civic honors and has served on dozens of civic boards. Among the many wonderful causes the Allmans have supported are the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, DFW World Affairs, Dallas Museum of Art, the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Dallas Symphony, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center Dallas.

In 2017, Allman was named Father of the Year at the 42nd Anniversary Father of the Year Awards Luncheon.

“This is truly a wonderful honor,” he said at the event. “For me, being a good father has been the most important part of my life. Wherever my girls are, whatever they are doing, I want them to know ‘My father loves me’ — it is unconditional love.”

Pierce Allman is survived by his devoted and loving wife, Allie Beth, his daughters Amy Allman-Dean and Margaret Allman-Cowan, and their families. His memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, at Highland Park United Methodist Church. 

In a message so true to the spirit of this incredible family, Allie Beth Allman told her agents to “celebrate Thanksgiving with your loved ones. Hold each other close, be grateful, and LOVE.

We’d love to hear your anecdotes with Pierce Allman, so comment below.