He was born on April 23, 1930, in Passaic, N.J., graduating from high school in Fair Lawn, N.J., in 1948. Allen moved to California where he attended the California Maritime Academy. Upon graduation in 1953, he served in the United States Navy attached to the Pacific Seventh Fleet as a Division Officer aboard the U.S.S. Los Angeles. He later served as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Allen attended and graduated from Santa Cara University with an MBA in 1965 while he worked at Westinghouse in Sunnyvale, a career that spanned 33 years. While at Westinghouse, he worked on the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident Missile programs and retired as a program manager in 1990. He was an assistant scoutmaster of Troop 466, earning the title of Eagle Maker, having mentored many a young man on their quest to become an Eagle Scout. His love of history found a home in Nevada County, and in his retirement years, he was a docent at the Empire Mine and president of the Historical Society.