Professor Emeritus Allen J. Frantzen founded the Loyola Community Literacy Center in 1992. He is not only a distinguished scholar and teacher but also a person with a strong sense of social justice who believes that even the most renowned scholars in English and Literary Studies should teach someone how to read. To carry out this mission, he founded the LCLC to reach out to the adults in Loyola’s Rogers Park neighborhood. The Literacy Center not only helps its neighbors improve their skills but also offers Loyola student-tutors the opportunity to practice Jesuit values by serving others.

Allen J. Frantzen, graduate of Loras College (magna cum laude) and the University of Virginia, joined the faculty of Loyola University Chicago in 1978. He directed the Graduate Programs in English from 1984–1988 and was named Faculty Member of the Year in 1991. In 1992, he founded the Loyola Community Literacy Center, which has operated continually on the Lake Shore Campus since that time. The LCLC, Loyola’s gift to the community, provides individual assistance to all adults, both native and non-native English speakers, who wish to improve their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in English. Between 1992 and 2005, Allen provided training in literacy tutoring for all volunteers, students, and staff members at the LCLC. He was named a Master Teacher by Loyola’s College of Arts & Sciences in 1997–98 and a Loyola Faculty Scholar in 2000. During the course of his distinguished career, he has published nine single-authored books, twelve edited or co-edited volumes, and many articles and book chapters. He has been honored by the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Humboldt Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Medieval Academy of America. Since 1985, he has directed nearly twenty doctoral dissertations. In October 2015, his former students organized a conference at Loyola, Opera Omnia: A Festspiel for Allen J. Frantzen, to express their gratitude to him for enriching their lives and careers by his exemplary dedication as a scholar, a teacher, a mentor, and a treasured friend.