My name is Robert Dykes, living in the United Kingdom. Occasionally I look up your newspaper site, bringing up back memories of when I use to live in Kingsville in the 1990s.

Wow! Sounds ages ago, 1993-95. I see Mr. Allen was named Living Legend for 2010. This letter is to celebrate that!

I arrived in Kingsville with my family around the summer of 1993. I needed a job, so I contacted the local businesses as we lived near the base. It wasn’t long before I met Clyde Allen.

He offered me a job at Allen Furniture. My business card read, “If you don’t know your furniture, know your furniture dealer.”

He is and always will be an inspiration to me — coaching me in the finer points of selling!

Reading the article in the paper, it sounds like he has been connected to more organizations than I have had hot dinners!

From his loving family, the bank, church and the local college, he has been a real servant to the local community.

It was and is a privilege to have known this man, and Kingsville is lucky to have such a man living in your town.

Regards from snowy England,

Robert J. Dykes