SELINSGROVE – Allen H. Charles, 89, formerly of Selinsgrove, passed away at 9:50 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012, at Buffalo Valley Lutheran Village, Lewisburg. He was born Aug. 2, 1923, in Selinsgrove, a son of the late Arthur H. Sr. and Eva (Fisher) Charles. On June 28, 1942, Allen married the former Martha Jane Feehrer, who preceded him in death on April 11, 2005.

He attended Selinsgrove until the eighth grade, then after becoming an orphan during March and April of 1937, he attended the Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys, which is now the Milton Hershey School. After four years, he graduated in June 1941 as a machine shop tool and die maker apprentice. After graduating, he was hired at his first job by the Glen L. Martin aircraft plant in Baltimore, Md. During the summer after Pearl Harbor, he returned to the Selinsgrove area and was employed in Danville as a milling machine operator until entering the Navy in March 1943.

In the Navy, he was trained as an amphibious repair unit team specialist and left for overseas duty in Scotland on the Queen Elizabeth in November 1943. He served 19 months in the European Theater of operations and eventually went by train to Milford Haven, Wales, preparing for the invasion of France. He was in the Omaha Beach landing on June 7, 1944, and and stayed until it closed in November and then went to Plymouth, England, and eventually returned to do advanced gunners training. He then boarded a new carrier, the USS Philippines Sea C.V. 47, in Boston, Mass., and remained there until his discharge in November 1946.

After his discharge, he learned auto body repair and worked for seven years at Selinsgrove Motors, Mifflinburg Motors and Watson Motors. In 1984, he started working for Young’s Co., Roaring Spring, selling vitamin and mineral products to farmers in Snyder, Union and southern Northumberland counties. Allen attended Sharon Lutheran Church, Selinsgrove.

He was a member of the Milton Hershey School Alumni Association, Rooster’s Corner Sportsman’s Club, Union County Sportsman’s Club, American Legion Post 25, Selinsgrove, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6631, Selinsgrove, DH&L Fire Company, the Snyder County Historical Society, a 60-year member of Free & Accepted Masons, Lafayette Lodge 194, Selinsgrove, and Lodge 144 in Lewisburg and the Williamsport Consistory.

He is survived by one son and daughter-in-law, Allen H. Jr. and Victoria Charles, of Odessa, Mo.; two grandchildren, Shannon Cobb and husband Gregory and Selena Amaya; two great-grandchildren, Tyler and Teryn Amaya; and two sisters, Anna Reichenbach, of Selinsgrove, and Evelyn Miller, of Delaware.

He was preceded in death by one son, Jeffrey B. Charles; one brother, Arthur Charles; and one sister, Helen Edmonds.

Friends and family will be received for a closed-casket visitation from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the V.L. Seebold Funeral Home, 601 N. High St., Selinsgrove, with a Masonic service at 8:45 by Lodge 194, and from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday at Sharon Lutheran Church, 120 S. Market St., Selinsgrove, where the funeral will follow at 11 with the Rev. Robert P. Doll officiating.

Burial with military honors will follow in Union Cemetery, Selinsgrove.