Charles C. Allen receives 2015 George M. Worrilow Award
During a ceremony held as part of Homecoming festivities, Charles C. Allen III was presented with the University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources George M. Worrilow Award, named for the dean of the college from 1954-65 whose career was dedicated to better agriculture and better agricultural education.
The award is given annually by the Ag Alumni Association to a graduate of the college who has exhibited outstanding service to agriculture.
Allen said he was pleasantly surprised to receive the award. He served as president of Allen Family Foods Inc., which was founded by his grandfather in 1919, from 1998 until 2008. Until 2011, the company was based in Seaford and was an industry leader and a global exporter of premium poultry products.
At its height, Allen Family Foods packed approximately 12 million pounds of finished products per week and employed more than 3,000 people.
The Allen family, including three generations of alumni, has long supported UD in such areas as scholarship programs and research facilities, including the Charles C. Allen Jr. Biotechnology Laboratory for poultry disease research.
On the importance of giving back, Allen said, “I’ve been fortunate, and I think it’s incumbent upon those who have had good fortune and good starts in life, a good basic foundation, to give back. Some generation ahead of me gave back; I think I should do the same. I think all of us should do the same.”
Allen said he has seen firsthand the great impact scholarships can have on students.
“I think it gives them encouragement. It gives them an outward vote of confidence. Somebody else believes that I can do what I’m seeking out to do. And I’ve seen it help students overcome some hurdles of self-confidence,” Allen said. “That’s the reward that you get. Giving the money is easy; seeing the result of it is what you really look for. And I’ll tell you this, my exposure to students gives me faith in the future.”
Of interacting with his scholarship recipients, Allen said he is always pleased to see their “Effervescence. They’re full of energy, and you can see that they’ve got ideas and that’s what university settings are about. OK, I learn things, but I learn about my ideas and my ideas will drive me to a different level of learning. That’s a level of curiosity that you don’t find at any other setting but a college or university, and I think it’s fabulous,” said Allen.
Allen served on the University of Delaware Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1993 and has been a member of the Delaware Diamonds Society since 1996. He has made several significant contributions to CANR, including gifts to the Agriculture Biotechnology Center, the Elbert N. and Ann V. Carvel Research and Education Center, Allen Lab, CANR Undergraduate Research, and the Cooperative Extension Program.
With regard to Cooperative Extension programming, Allen said it is a great tool for giving students hands-on learning opportunities.
“I think the academic arena is good, but they need to get out and have some real-life experience in the process. We’ve been supporters of Extension work for students, and we firmly believe in that. It’s nice to have the classroom training and the background, but you need the real-life exposure to see what it is,” said Allen.
Allen was honored with a place on the university’s Alumni Wall of Fame in 2006.
From 1992-93, he was chairman of the National Chicken Council in Washington, D.C. In October 2012, he was elected a National Honorary Life Member of the Chicken Council.
In August 1992, Allen had the honor to meet with President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office of the White House.
Allen received a bachelor of science degree in agriculture from UD in 1971, and his son Chad Allen also received a bachelor of science degree in agriculture from UD in 1998.
