Jonathan Allen; Developed Talking Computer

Jonathan Allen, 65, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who developed a talking computer at a time when the idea of such a machine sounded like science fiction. Allen received worldwide notice in the 1970s for creating a computer named Morris that could talk and read. A computer system developed by Allen has been used to aid physicist Stephen Hawking, who is paralyzed as a result of Lou Gehrig’s disease. A member of MIT’s faculty since 1968, Allen had directed the school’s electronics research laboratory since 1981. His research centered on speech processing, computational linguistics, computer architecture and integrated electronics. Born in Hanover, N.H., he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Dartmouth College and a doctorate at MIT. Before joining the MIT faculty in 1968, Allen did research on the design of semiautomatic telephone information bureaus at the Bell Telephone Laboratory. On Monday at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston of complications from a lengthy illness.