Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs
Veteran Lifetime Achievement Award

Past Award Recipient
February 2008

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, James C. Allen, MD, was born July 25, 1928 in Janesville, WI, and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1952 to 1954 during the Korean War; and

WHEREAS, he was awarded the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and a Meritorious Unit Citation; and

WHEREAS, he is a graduate of the Marquette University School of Medicine (Medical College of Wisconsin), engaged in postgraduate work in London, England, Boston, Massachusetts, and Vienna, Austria, and holds a specialty certification in Ophthalmology and is licensed by the Wisconsin Board of Medical Examiners and the National Board of Medical Examiners; and

WHEREAS, he was employed by the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison from 1967 to 2000, holding the ranks of Assistant and Associate Professor and serving as the Coordinator of Ophthalmology Inpatient Care; and

WHEREAS, in addition to his teaching and research duties during his professional career at the UW, he was an active member of a host of professional societies, served as a professional journal reviewer and editor, was a member of numerous UW Medical School Committees, wrote a profuse number of professional papers, articles, book contributions and reviews, and abstracts, made countless professional talks and presentations, invented an important Ophthalmological medical instrument, and received many honors and awards, including several outstanding teacher awards; and

WHEREAS, he treated veterans at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison from 1967 to 2000, is currently a Professor Emeritus at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and a Consultant for the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, has served as a consultant to establish Glaucoma Screening Programs at the Federal VA Hospital in Tomah and the Wisconsin Veterans Home at Union Grove, and has participated in numerous glaucoma screening events in southern Wisconsin over the past forty years; and

WHEREAS, based upon his medical diagnostic and research skills, he was the moving force behind Congress’ recently passed Dr. James C. Allen Veteran Vision Equity Act, which enables veterans who have a complete loss of sight in one eye due to a service-connected injury to receive increased disability compensation if they begin to lose sight in the other eye, regardless of whether that loss of sight was originally service-connected; and

WHEREAS, he is a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Blinded Veterans Association, and Veterans for Peace.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Peter J. Moran, Chair of the Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs, proclaim
Dr. James C. Allen as the recipient of the Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs Veteran Lifetime Achievement Award on this 20th day of February 2008.

Peter J. Moran, Board Chair