first revenue certificate bond issue to rebuild the white section of the old state mental hospital at Milledgeville. When Pearl Harbor was struck in late 1941, he was called into the army as a reserve officer. During World War II, he served as a supply officer and directed the field division of the Selective Service System in Georgia for the United States Army. He entered the service in 1942 as a second lieutenant and was discharged in 1945 as a major. When the War ended, an old college friend who was also the progressive young Governor of Georgia, Ellis Arnall, went to Washington and asked the Secretary of Defense to release Allen from his duties. Allen was discharged and immediately became executive secretary to Governor Arnall until March 1946. He was later chief of staff for Governor M.E. Thompson (1947–1948). While working at Ivan Allen–Marshall Company, he began to participate in civic affairs, such as the Boy Scouts and the Community Chest. He served as a member of the state Board of Education and the state Department of Veteran Services. He was a director of the Bank of Georgia, a trustee at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, an executive board member of the state's Family Welfare Society and of the Atlanta YMCA, president of the Young Democrats Club of Georgia, and president of the Atlanta Improvement Association (1951). For almost ten years, he led the state Chamber of Commerce in industrial development projects. With friends Mills B. Lane, Jack Glenn, Philip Alston, Richard Rich, Lawrence Gellerstedt Jr., and others, he founded The Commerce Club, which served as a venue for business networking and hospitality. He served as chairman until his death. Allen was an active member of the Atlanta Rotary Club from 1939 until his death. He served as president of the Community Chest and United Way, president of the Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. In 1947, he was selected to head the Community Chest fund drive, during which time he became the first white member of the Community Chest leadership to attend the opening fundraising dinner for the black division of the Community Chest. In 1958, he served as a member on the Atlanta Citizens Advisory Committee on Urban Renewal. He was elected president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in 1960 and, in 1961, proposed the