Robert S. Allen
American journalist (1900–1981)
Robert Sharon Allen (July 14, 1900 — February 23, 1981) was an American journalist, Washington bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor, and military officer.
Background
Robert Sharon Allen was born on July 14, 1900, in Latonia, Kentucky, to Harry and Lizzie (Elizabeth) Greenberg. Allen's given name was Herman Greenberg. He changed his name and lied about his age in order to join the military on September 6, 1916. His father officially changed his name to match his son's in 1918, saying that there was a German "taint" to the last part of his name and he desired a real American name. After that time all the family except his brother Isador used the name.
Allen married fellow journalist Ruth Finney in 1929, and they remained married until her death in 1979. He later married Adeline Sunday (1921–2017), his former secretary.
Career
Allen joined the army, lying about his age in order to do so, and served in the cavalry during the Pancho Villa Expedition of 1916–17 and in France during World War I.
After the war, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin and took up reporting. He joined the Ku Klux Klan in order to write an exposé about them, and was studying in Munich at the time of Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch (1923).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Robert S. Allen” is american journalist (1900–1981). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Robert, Allen and American, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7349445. VIAF identifies the subject as 56998629. The Library of Congress control number is no00044861. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1900, 1981, 1916 and 1918.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert S. Allen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.