* Clarence Allgood; Federal Judge Who Shaped Bankruptcy Rules

Clarence Allgood, 89, U. S. district judge who served more than half a century on the federal bench and who helped develop the Chapter 13 provisions that govern how debtors may repay their creditors. Allgood was appointed a federal bankruptcy judge in 1938 and after helping draft Chapter 13 procedures moved from that court to U. S. District Court in 1961. Until recently, he also heard appeals cases with the 11th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the South. When he was 18, he lost both legs when he fell under a train while riding with friends aboard a boxcar, said the jurist’s biographer, Stephen Coleman Jr. Allgood was always noted as a “practical, sensible, fair judge,” said Coleman. “People in his court, even the people he sentenced, often came back to him later to thank him for his kindness and consideration,” Coleman said. Police said Allgood had been in poor health and died in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, an apparent suicide.