Job: Instructor and owner, Allen Driving School, Marietta
What I do: If New Year's Eve is just a blurred memory and your only souvenir is a ticket for driving under the influence, Marvin "Ace" Allen has not only empathy but also a way to get your license back.
Allen runs Allen Driving School, which holds classes in defensive driving and risk reduction -- or, as his sign in a Marietta shopping center reads, "DUI."
It's for anyone who has been caught using alcohol or drugs, whether or not it's while driving. His students include minors who have been caught drinking underage or using drugs.
"Basically, it's a health course," said Allen, 70. "It's a problem with alcoholism, not just [driving with an] impairment."
In 20 hours of classes, over two nights and two weekend days, Allen mixes humor, empathy and a state-mandated course to teach people about risks to their own health and to other people's safety.
In the course, regulated by the state Department of Driver Ser-
vices, students learn about high-risk and low-risk behaviors and how to make good decisions.
Sometimes, students have been ordered by a judge to take the course; otherwise, completion is required to renew a driver's license after a conviction for impairment.
While he never has had a DUI conviction himself, Allen admitted he engaged in risky behavior when he was young.
"It never dawned on me that I could have killed someone," he said. "Now I realize I made a lot of high-risk choices."
That's part of the message he passes along to students: that their decisions affect other people.
What got me interested in this: Allen retired in 1979 from the retail clothing business, in which he owned stores and was an executive with a large retail company. He said he still wanted to work, but on his own terms.
He saw an advertisement for a driving instructor and accepted the job. He later became certified as a defensive driving and DUI instructor and opened and ran driving schools. He opened his current driving school in 2002.
Best part of my job: Comments from people who have completed his course who say things such as, "Ace is one of the best, if not the best, instructors I ever had." That means he's helping people "live a better life, perhaps saving a life because that person isn't driving impaired."
He added, "Because of my passion for doing this, they may be alive today."
Besides, he said, his down-home style lets him "cut up in class."
Most challenging part: "Trying to get through to people." That's why he uses humor and his own laid-back manner to get the material across to students.
What people don't know about my job: "Many people think that people who get arrested for DUI are the scum of the earth," Allen said. "But most people who come to class are really nice. It's easy to get arrested for DUI on one glass of wine."
He said his students have included television personalities, police officers, preachers, mothers and strippers.
What keeps me going: "It's not a job; it's a passion for me," Allen said. "I become part of people's lives. Later, they may reflect on these lessons."
Preparation needed for this job: While he has been grandfathered in with his previous DUI instructor certification, Allen said prospective instructors need prior teaching experience, a crime-free background for at least five years and certification by both the state and the publishers of the driving course.
You also have to be a people person who is an engaging instructor.
And, as an instructor, Allen said he doesn't engage in high-risk behavior, such as drinking and driving.
While he's not a teetotaler, he said, "I don't drink enough to pay the dividend on one share of Budweiser stock."
Allen has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Georgia.
- By Karl Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.