While serving as a combat infantryman with the 77th Infantry Division on Okinawa in 1945, Everett S. Allen became the youngest blinded American serviceman of World War II. Undaunted, this recipient of the Purple Heart and numerous other military decorations underwent rehabilitation and came to Huntington to earn his undergraduate degree from Marshall College in 1950.
Born in Hinton, West Virginia, in 1926, Allen decided to remain in Huntington after graduation. He was determined that his disability would not prevent him from becoming a successful entrepreneur. He operated a gas station, developed skills as an automobile mechanic, formed a telephone answering service, and owned and maintained several apartments.
Allen played golf (breaking a score of 100 on 18 holes), swam, danced and ice skated. A member of the West Virginia Library Commission, he helped establish the state's first sub-regional library for the blind and disabled at the Cabell County Public Library. He was involved in many local, state and national organizations dedicated to the training and assistance of the visually impaired.
Possibly his most important endeavor was his association with the Teubert Foundation and the James H. & Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, which disburses thousands of dollars each year from its Huntington office to help bring the visually impaired into the mainstream of life.
