Vern Allen was born and raised in S. E. Michigan where he continues to live with his wife of 40 years who was born and raised in Italy. He has three “children” (ages 35-40) and six grandchildren (ages 2-9) who all live in the same general area. Vern also has a residence near Marquette, Michigan, which is near Lake Superior.

Vern did his undergraduate work at Western Michigan University and his graduate work at Wayne State University, specializing in anthropology and sociology. He taught high school for 36 years and designed a course in anthropology, which he taught for 30 of his 36 years. He also was involved with the Center For Near Eastern and North African Studies that met out of the University of Michigan, and has visited the Middle East on two occasions. He was also sponsored by a local Holocaust center to study the Holocaust in Poland and Israel back in 1991. He is now retired.

Vern has always questioned his own faith, and he went from his Lutheran upbringing to the Catholicism of his wife (he eventually became co-director for the RCIA program, which dealt with adults who had interest in converting to Catholicism), to Judaism in his 50’s, but has in the last several years adopted a non-theistic approach similar to that which is found in some forms of Buddhism. However, he remains active in his Reform synagogue and has taught many seminars there, and he also teaches about Judaism at one of the local churches in his area. He also has been involved with an interfaith council of Christians, Muslims, and Jews.