Waldo M. Allen
Waldo M. Allen, E
ta 1916, Distinguished Service Award 1982 (February 17, 1893 – September 19, 1982)
Waldo M. Allen, was a successful investment broker, a leader in the Society of Mayflower Descendants and a supporter of the Zeta Psi chapter at Yale University for decades.
Brother Allen graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania (where John Meigs, a past Phi Alpha was Headmaster) and Yale University. While attending Yale, he
joined the Yale Battalion of Field Artillery and was a member of Yale’s first ROTC class. In 1916, during the Mexican Border dispute, Brother Allen served in the 10th Field Artillery of the
Connecticut National Guard. He was promoted to First Lieutenant in December 1917.
In August 1918, as part of the 331st Field Artillery, he was sent overseas in during World War I. He trained near Bordeaux, France with the 86th Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, but the Armistice was signed before he was sent to the Front. Brother Allen compiled and edited a history of his regiment entitled, “The 331st Field Artillery, United States Army, 1917-1919, which was published in 1919.
After his release from active military service, Allen served as a salesman for Durand,
McNeil, Horner and Company, wholesale grocers in Chicago and then spent more than
forty years as a statistician and investment advisor for Mitchell, Hutchins and Company.
During World War II, he again entered military service, now as a major, as the acting
executive of the Rockford District of Organized Reserves of Illinois. This was a
temporary assignment, which ended in 1942.
Brother Allen was very active in the Society of Mayflower Descendants serving as the
governor of its Illinois chapter and the Governor General of its National chapter.
He was one of the first benefactors of the Zeta Psi Heritage Society and
personally funded the publishing of the Zeta Psi Membership Directory in 1980.
His papers are in the archives of the Chicago History Museum.