Born April 23rd, 1924 to
Mr. & Mrs. John Raymond Allen of Ross County, Ohio.
“Doc” had a younger brother Ralph and younger sister Marion.
They lived in a variety of locations in Ross County while his father worked at the Chillicothe Paper Company as foreman of the shipping department.
As a young boy he attended several schools in Ross County. “Doc” told of living north of Chillicothe on Marietta Rd. and attending a school where his job was to show up first thing in the morning and start the wood stove in the school house. He also attended a school in the Southeastern SD east of Chillicothe near Richmond Dale.
But most of his stories related to when his family lived in Fruit Dale in far western Ross County and he attended Buckskin Valley HS in South Salem. There his family lived on a small farm and he had many stories regarding his duties attending the cows, or playing in a nearby stream. It was there that he met his future bride, June McClosky.
As with most stories coming from “Doc”, the majority of his high school stories had to do with playing on the school’s baseball and basketball teams. He often said that what he regretted most about skipping a grade in elementary school was the fact that it meant that he lost a year of playing high school sports with his younger brother, Ralph.
Following graduation from Buckskin, he began attending Miami of Ohio University taking pre-med courses. He continued to excel in sports participating on the winning intramural basketball team.
He eventually stopped classes for financial reasons and took a job to begin saving for future studies. That’s when WWII started and Uncle Sam said he was needed.
"Doc" Allen 