Wheaton man who died from COVID-19 remembered as loving father who could fix anything

Allan L. Rhoades is being remembered as a loving father and a handyman who "knew how to fix anything."

"There wasn't anything he couldn't build, there wasn't anything he couldn't fix," said Rhoades' daughter, Nicole Rohn of Elmhurst.

Rhoades died from COVID-19 on Saturday, Nov. 28, at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield. He was 81.

He had moved to Wheaton three years ago to be closer to his daughter, but his family life was spent mainly in Addison and then, after he retired, in Wheeling.

With her father's two main careers as a railroad lineman and an alarm serviceman for Wells Fargo, Rohn describes her family life as solidly blue collar. But she added that her parents worked hard to provide their family with great home amenities.

"We never went without anything," said Rohn, citing her father's ingenuity in building the deck for a backyard pool.

Rohn also fondly remembers her father maintaining a large vegetable garden and installing a sand volleyball pit.

"We were always the house that everyone came to," she said.

Rhoades was born in 1939 in Thorntown, Indiana. When he was called up for the military draft in the 1960s, he served two years in the U.S. Army with a clerical job in New Mexico.

He married to Pamela Hobscheid in 1980, and they were together until her death in 2008.

"She was the love of his life for almost 29 years," Rohn said.

As a widower, Rhodes took up dancing and became a dedicated fan of the local classic rock band Rick Lindy and the Wild Ones, as well as rockabilly musician Everett Dean.

"He loved to jitterbug," Rohn said. "He had such a community of friends that were amazing."

In addition to Rohn, Rhoades is survived by six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and one brother, John.

Rhoades is predeceased by his parents, George W. and Nova, his wife, Pamela, his son, Mark, and two brothers, Robert and Max.

"He loved people and he just had a huge heart," Rohn said. "Whoever needed help, he would go and help them."

Rhoades' ashes will be interred at Ridgewood Memorial Park in Des Plaines. Due to the coronavirus restrictions, services are postponed to either spring or summer of 2021.