Willard H. Allen

Willard Harry Allen (January 19, 1893 – February 25, 1957) was an American poultry scientist who served as New Jersey secretary of agriculture from 1938 to 1956.

Life and career Allen was born in Danbury, Connecticut, and graduated from Connecticut Agricultural College, now the University of Connecticut, in 1916. He worked as an extension specialist for poultry husbandry at the University of Georgia before enlisting in the US Army and serving overseas during World War I.

Following his military service, Allen worked as poultry extension specialist first at Connecticut and then for Rutgers University from 1921 to 1927. He served as director of research for Acetol Products in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from 1927 to 1934, when he returned to Rutgers as a full professor of poultry science and state leader of county agricultural agents. He was appointed to lead the federal agricultural adjustment administration for New Jersey that same year.

Allen served as secretary of the New Jersey Poultry Association, vice president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, and director of various national agricultural organizations. The University of Connecticut has a scholarship dedicated to his memory, along with a residence hall, though the hall may have been named after Ethan Allen instead.

A resident of the Rosemont section of Delaware Township (in Hunterdon County), Allen never married and had no children.