Son of Howard Wardsworth Allen and Martha Todd Allen. He attended public schools in Oxford, OH, Coral Gables, FL and Jacksonville, FL. He lived for a time with his grandparents in Oxford, OH where his grandfather was a professor of economics at Miami University. In 1936, his family moved to Miami Beach, FL where he got a paper route with the Miami Daily News. When his father opened the Colony Ice Cream Store in Coral Gables, he worked in the store until it closed; worked for the Olympia and Tivoli Theaters in Miami as an usher. Then, for a short time, he worked at Walgreens Drug Store. When he was 16, he began working for the Mayflower Donut Corporation in Miami, FL and then in Washington, DC. He was transferred to Cincinnati, OH, Cleveland, OH, then to Detroit MI, serving in various capacities; his last position before being drafted into the U.S. Army was in Detroit as a night manager. He was sworn in as a private at Camp Blanding, FL on March 20, 1943. After taking basic training, he was given basic radio training and then advanced radio training. He was assigned as a Flight Radio Operator with the Ferry Command and then later transferred to serve with the Air Transport Command. He served in the American, European-African, Middle Eastern and Asiatic -Pacific Theaters of Operation during World War II, attaining the rank of Sergeant and was honorably discharged at March Field, CA on December 11, 1945. He returned to work with the Mayflower Donut Corporation in Cincinnati as a night manager and began taking courses under the GI Bill. In 1948 he took a position in Indianapolis, IN with the Laundry Workers International Union as an International Organizer and was assigned to work from the Atlanta, GA HQ. While on a Texas business trip in January 1954, he attended an evening worship service at the First Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, TX and was baptized by Pastor Homer G. Richie. Shortly after, he quit the LWIU and relocated to Miami, FL where his parents were living. He was the manager of Loffler Brothers Oyster House in Coral Gables, FL. Then he became a salesman with Abraham Chevrolet Co. of Coral Gables. Following that he worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad as a dining car steward, going from Miami to New York and back. After discovering that he couldn't sleep well on a train, he went back to work as a salesman at Abraham Chevrolet, where he remained until he moved to Decatur, GA as a ministerial student at Columbia Seminary in the fall of 1956. During his middle years at Columbia Seminary, he married Judith Lynn (Judy) Akin of Acworth, GA on December 22, 1957 in the Acworth Presbyterian Church where she and her parents were members. He began serving the Midway and Mars Hill Presbyterian Churches in 1957 as a student supply until his seminary graduation in 1959. He was ordained by Cherokee Presbytery at Midway Presbyterian Church on December 20, 1959 and was called by both churches to be their pastor, serving from 1959 to 1962. He served as senior pastor of Eastern Heights Presbyterian Church in Savannah, GA from October 1962 until April 1974. In April 1974, he served as senior pastor of Shenandoah Presbyterian Church of Miami, FL until November 1981. During this time, he also served the Presbytery of Southern Florida on the Committee on Administration as its Chairman and also served as Chairman of Presbytery's Committee on Mission to the U.S. He also chaired presbytery commissions to receive both the Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church and the Old Cutler Presbyterian Church into the PCA. He returned to served the Midway congregation from August 1983 to November 1996, and from August 16, 1998 to December 27, 1998, he served as an interim pastor for Westminster Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, GA. In March of 2001 he began serving as the interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Villa Rica, GA, became senior pastor on August 20, 2000 and retired in October 2009. He was the author of "Revelation Confidential," originally published in 1962 and re-edited for publication in 2008. Surviving are his wife, Judy; four children, Deborah Deldee, twins, Rebekah Lynn and Rachel Davina, and Todd Wardsworth Allen, Jr.; six grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Life story edited from Reverend Allen's autobiography.