businesses. Allen Sr. was also a founding member of the Atlanta Rotary Club, served as president of the new Atlanta Convention Bureau (1913–1917), president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (1917), two years as senator in the Georgia state legislature (1918–1919), and was the treasurer of the Georgia Democratic Party in 1936. In an effort to attract northern capital to Atlanta, Allen Sr. headed the Atlanta chamber's "Forward Atlanta" booster campaign (1926–1929), a strategy that would lure almost 700 new businesses to Atlanta and serve to influence Allen Jr.'s future as a businessman and civic leader. From an early age, Allen understood that his family was one of privilege. He began attending Boys High School in 1927, and was one of the few students to own a car. That same year, his father's name was published for the first time in the Social Cities Register, an annual list of elites in Richmond, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, and Augusta. He regularly attended the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta with his parents, and would later serve as an elder for many years and an active member until his death. Education Initially an indifferent student, Allen asserted himself during his last year at Boys High, earning a spot on the honor roll. In 1929, he enrolled in the School of Commerce at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During his first year at Georgia Tech, he was one of only five students in the student body of about two thousand to make straight A's. He graduated cum laude in 1933, with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce. While at Georgia Tech, he served as president of the student body, vice president of the Inter-Fraternity Council, cadet colonel of the ROTC, president of Omicron Delta Kappa, vice-president of ANAK, president of the Georgia Phi chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, was a member of the Honor Roll, and a member of the Dean's List. At one point, he led a student protest against Governor Eugene Talmadge when the board of regents abolished the School of Commerce at Tech and moved it to the University of Georgia. During one summer as a college student he served as postmaster, strung tennis rackets, and worked as a counselor for young campers at Camp Greenbriar in Alderson, West Virginia. He was paid $500 and invested this money in Coca-Cola stock, of which he wrote was "my first investment and