Occasionally, when he was feeling extra Kappa-ish, he was known to belt out Kappa songs at the dinner table. Throughout the next decades, Daddy took enormous pleasure in being a Kappa, insisting that Kappa Alpha Psi was the only true fraternity – that the other Greek organizations were really just “clubs for young men who wish they could be Kappas but couldn’t make the grade.”Īnd whenever anyone made the grievous error of assuming he was any other Greek, he’d scoff and correct them: “No, I’m a FRATERNITY MAN.”
Daddy corroborated the story, often reminding me that I owed my very existence to the Kappas. “The only reason I let Jeanie marry your father was that he was a Kappa man, so I knew he was worthy of her” he teased. Colored lawyers don’t make any money.”īut when she told him Daddy was also a Kappa, Pop-Pop changed his mind. When Jean told her father about her new beau, Pop-Pop was unimpressed. The paths of these two Kappa men crossed and then forever merged when, on a trip to Los Angeles to attend the 1957 Kappa Conclave, Daddy’s blind date was Jean Graham, Lorenz’s daughter. Their membership in the Kappas intertwined with and enriched my grandfather’s and father’s lives in countless ways and, to a considerable degree, helped to shape and define the remarkable men they became. Being a Kappa was one of the great joys of Daddy’s life and receiving the Laurel Wreath, the Kappa’s highest honor, meant everything to him.
The Good Judge pledged Kappa in 1949 at Youngstown State University and remained a true and loyal Kappa Man for the next 70 years. Pop Pop loved to point out that every Kappa pledge at UCLA must know his name as a charter member before they can cross over. My grandfather Lorenz Graham was a founding member of the Kappa Alpha Psi UCLA chapter where he pledged in 1924. Happy Founders Day to the brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi, from the daughter and granddaughter of proud Kappa men.
0 kommentar(er)
