"Allen, a graduate of Bowdoin College, had served for 10 years as a professor of chemistry and natural history at Dickinson College, and for one year as president of that institution. In 1850 he became president of Girard College...served [there] for 12 years...retiring to his country home in 1863...[from whence he came to Penn State]. In 1852, Union College [gave him an] LL.D. degree.... [When he left Penn State in 1866] he was reelected president of Girard...which position he retained until his death in 1882.... In 1872, he was chosen president of the American Bible Society, which office he held for 8 years.... Allen was a man of character and culture...popular with [Penn State's] faculty and students [but] he could not adjust to the primitive campus conditions...[throughout his short tenure] he appears to have been an interested spectator rather than a leader."