Bro. Albert “Chico” Allen
It gives me great pleasure and honor to be recommended by you to be included in the GPAA Member Spotlight for the 3rd Quarter of 2022. Therefore, I hope that the information included in this document that shall be placed on our website for all members of GPAA to see and read shall give you a better opportunity to get to know me a little bit more than you already know about me. Again thanks for recommending me for my inclusion in the GPAA Member Spotlight for the 3rd Quarter of 2022.
Meeting and interacting with the numerous and everlasting friends including my fellow students, faculty, staff, baseball team mates and coaches, and my Brothers of the Gamma Pi Undergraduate Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated while I was in school at Alcorn State University from different parts of Mississippi, nation and globally, were some of the greatest and rewarding memories of my life. The aforementioned groups of people made my academic and athletic experience at Alcorn State University rewarding, successful and enjoyable.
Also, personally and professionally I have been greatly blessed by (1) God; (2) My Family and (3) My Jobs. Please note that I could not have done anything at Alcorn State University or any place else without the unconditional support, mercy, grace, blessings, and love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father created my body in his likeness and image; God the Son saved my body that God the Father created in his likeness and image when he died on the Cross; and God the Holy Spirit indwells in the heart of my body because I am a believer of the Word of God.
My Family wise I was not reared in a traditional family where you have a married father and mother living in the same household because my mother died from a gunshot wound when I was three (3) months old. Thus I didn’t really know her. After my mother’s death my father rightfully so remarried and I did not get the opportunity to see him until I was almost 35 years old. Therefore I was reared by grandmother who had ten (10) children of her own but I was very well blessed and taken care of by my grandmother and her ten (10) children because they as individually and as a group worked very hard to take care of me and their children. Due to my family blessings I can gladly say that we did not miss a meal or bill.
My Jobs wise I have held various positions that include: (1) serving as a newspaper delivery boy at a local newspaper company in Jackson, Mississippi; (2) short order cook and assisting the master chef as needed at the Rotisserie Restaurant (now defunct) in Jackson, Mississippi where I worked primarily in the afternoons and on weekends during school days from 1965 through June 1967; and (3) worked as a waiter, busboy and bellhop at the Sun-n-Sand Motel (now defunct) in Jackson, Mississippi. This was primarily summer employment while I was in college at Alcorn State University, Lorman, Mississippi as an undergraduate from 1967 through 1968. Also I worked as a (4) food stocker in the cafeteria including other food related activities at the Zenith Television Corporation for the summer of 1969 in Chicago, Illinois while I was at Alcorn State University, Lorman, Mississippi. Finally, upon my graduation from Alcorn State University in May 1971, I worked as a (5) graduate research assistant and held three (3) professorial positions in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University from May 1971 to June 30, 2012.
Although Alcorn State University did not have a major in Agricultural Economics while I was there from 1967 to 1971 but the major I had in Agricultural Education at the University prepared me extremely well for achieving a Masters (M.S.) degree in December 1974 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PH.D) degree in May 1978 in Agricultural Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University. Also, the preparation that I had at Alcorn allowed me to make a smooth and seamless transition from being a Graduate Research Assistant to being a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics on December 1, 1977 at Mississippi State University where I retired in the Department of Agricultural Economics on June 30, 2012. Therefore, Alcorn State University did an excellent job in preparing me for a rewarding and successful career in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University. Overall I want to thank you the Alcorn State University Purple and Gold Family and my Crimson and Cream Gamma Pi Fraternal Brothers for a job well done in preparing me for my rewarding, personally and professionally, chosen career in Agricultural Economics and my membership in the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated.
I would be remiss if I did not give out special thanks to my fraternal brothers who pledged with me (back in the day we pledged), Brother Henry Houze, and Brother Preston Lee. My pledge brothers and I, who as a group, were known as the Fearless Five. The Fearless Five included Albert J. “Chico” Allen, James “Pig” Hall, Alex Pipes-Now Deceased; John “Nasty” Jackson and Emerson L. “Razor” Samuels. These fraternal brothers helped me greatly when I was pledging back in the day at Alcorn State University and after our pledging and school days were over especially Brother James “Pig” Hall. Also, Brother Henry Houze was my fraternal advisor at Alcorn State University. I primarily used Brother Houze’s approach to advising us at the Gamma Pi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity at Alcorn State University as a guide that greatly enabled me to serve as one of the four (4) founders of the Eta Upsilon Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. at Mississippi State University and as its fraternal advisor for over 25 years. The four (4) founders of the Eta Upsilon Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity were James Kilgore, Pi Chapter of Morehouse College-Now Deceased, Jerald Johnson, Gamma Pi Chapter of Alcorn State University, Albert J. “Chico” Allen, Gamma Pi Chapter of Alcorn State University, and Alvin Williams Zeta Zeta Chapter of Mississippi Valley State University). Again Thanks Brother Houze for a job well done in advising us at Alcorn State University.
Furthermore special thanks go out to Brother Preston Lee who graduated from the same high school that I did in Jackson, Mississippi: Lanier High School. Lanier High School, located at 833 Maple Street in Jackson, Mississippi, has 97 years of excellence 1925-2022. To my knowledge and experience I am quite sure Lanier High School (“Lanier Dear”) shall continue to be a notable academic and athletic institution serving in the Georgetown community in Jackson, Mississippi, the city of Jackson and other surrounding areas in the state due to its dedicated and loyal alumni members and friends in the years to come. I have to mention that Lanier High School is named after William H. Lanier, who was a Former President at Alcorn State University, Lorman, Mississippi.
Brother Preston Lee nominated me for the School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences (SAAS) 2017 Alumni Hall of Fame for which he took the sole responsibility for putting the nomination package together for me. With his untiring work that he put forth in the nomination process, I was inducted in the 2017 SAAS Alumni Hall of Fame Class on Friday, August 18, 2017, in Jackson, Mississippi.
I am also a Life Member in the following professional and scientific organizations: KAΨ-Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Grand Chapter; KAΨ-Gamma Pi Alumni Association; Mississippi Retired Public Employees Association (MRPEA); the Association of Retired Faculty (ARF), Mississippi State University; KAΨ-Southwestern Province (SWP); and Lanier High School National Alumni Association. Additionally I am a Charter Member of the Mississippi Agricultural Economics Association, The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), and the International African American Museum. Finally below I have compiled and placed my BIO By the Numbers for your additional information. If you need more detailed information than that which I have included in my BIO By the Numbers, please free to contact me at your earliest convenience by email at albertja2012@yahoo.com.