TO THE CHAPTER INVISIBLE
Col. Benjamin P. Allen, III, United States Army, Retired 1942-2016 Past Grand Strategus By Aaron Williams
A banker, community activist, substitute teacher and fam- ily man, Colonel Benjamin “Ben” Perry Allen, III, USAR (Ret) entered the Chapter Invisible on January 31, 2016. Brother Allen was a 1961 initiate of the Xi of Kappa Alpha Psi ® at Howard University. In 1963, Brother Allen served the fraternity as Grand Strategus in the administration of the 17 th Grand Polemarch Richard B. Millspaugh. Born in Washington, DC on February 27, 1942, Brother Allen was the older of two sons, to Elizabeth C. Matthews and Benjamin P. Allen II. He was among the first class to integrate Theodore Roos- evelt High School, graduating in 1959.
University in 1963 from the College of Liberal Arts with a BS degree, in the class of “vanguards” as he fondly referred to them. Brother Allen would say that he never intended to be a trailblazer; the doors of opportunity opened in their time and he was charged with walk- ing through them. In 1976, he gradu- ated from Rutgers University Graduate School of Business with a Masters of Business Administration. Brother Allen worked as a banker for 38 years with four firms spanning New York City, Washington DC, McLean, Virginia and Charlotte North Carolina; Marine Midland Bank, HSBC, PNC Bank (former Riggs Bank), and Branch Banking and Trust (BB&T), respectively. After holding numerous management positions over the course of his career,
he retired in 2007 as Vice President, Financial Center Manager with BB&T in Charlotte North Carolina. Through- out his professional career, Brother Allen was frequently the first African-Ameri- can to hold senior positions in many of these institutions. In his career and into his retirement, Brother Allen sought opportunities to mentor and uplift. Dur- ing his time in New York, he was the Treasurer for the E.D.G.E.S. Group, a not-for-profit organization founded by and for African Americans in corporate upper management and executive roles — many of whom were the first and/or the only African-American executives in their respective corporations. Simultane- ously, Ben pursued his US Army Reserve duties and responsibilities, rising in rank from Active Duty Captain to Colonel, receiving several awards and recogni-
Brother Allen graduated from Howard
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
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