TO THE CHAPTER INVISIBLE
Leonard C. Ricks, Jr. 1933–2022 Educator, U.S. Army By Aaron Williams
Funeral Homes. Ricks volunteered as a committee person in his local ward and was active in the East Mount Airy Neighbors, a community group. Ricks was a long- time active member of the Philadelphia (PA) Alumni Chapter, affectionately known as "Number Two." In 2013, the Philadelphia (PA) Alumni presented Ricks with an official white fraternity blazer for 60 years of membership in Kappa Alpha Psi. His family children traveled to many Kappa and Shrine con- ventions and summer Kappa cookouts. In 2014, he received an award for his philanthropy and service to Eden Cemetery in Collingdale with his daughter, Lorraine, and two friends. Ricks served in numerous capacities in the Masonic Order, becoming master of his lodge in 1970. He was coronated as a sublime prince in DeMolay Consis- tory No. 1 and became a Noble of the Mystic Shrine in Pyramid Temple No. 1. He was elevated to Grand Inspector General in 1996. During his retirement, he traveled to Ghana, Senegal, and Gambia. Ricks was preceded in death by his
son-in-law, Quentyn Kennedy. Brother Leonard C. Ricks, Jr., is survived by: his children, Lorraine Ricks, Lynnette Kennedy, Lauren Ricks, and Leonard C. Ricks III (Stamford (CT) Alumni 2000); granddaughters, Briana and Blaire Ken- nedy; Ann Adderly; and other family and friends.
R etired industrial arts instruc- tor Leonard Calvert Ricks, Jr. (Gamma Omega 1953) entered the Chapter Invisible on Febru- ary 8, 2022, at the age of 89. On Janu- ary 28, 1933, Ricks was born in West Philadelphia to the late Leonard Sr. and Inez (née Ivory) Ricks. He was educated in the Philadelphia Public School System and graduated from Overbrook High School in 1950. He graduated from Cheyney State Teachers' College with a bachelor's degree in industrial arts. As an undergraduate member of the Fraternity via Gamma Omega, was the first undergraduate member to purchase the Fraternity's Life Membership. Ricks purchased the second life membership in fraternity history after 15 th Grand Polemarch W. Henry Greene's life mem- bership purchase. Following in his father's footsteps, Ricks was raised to Master Percy C. Moore Lodge 140 of the Free and Ac- cepted Masons in 1954. Upon graduat- ing from college, Ricks served in the United States Army from 1956 to July 1958. Ricks taught industrial arts in the Philadelphia Public School System and enjoyed serving as a motivation coor- dinator at Germantown High School, exposing students to various industrial art forms. He was also passionate about fixing cars, executing plumbing, electri- cal, and cement projects, and making wood crafts. He also pursued a second career in mortuary science. While teaching, he worked for Ivory Funeral Home and, later, Hawkins and Garriest-Crawley
Life Membership #2.
October 1956 issue of The Kappa Alpha Psi Journal.
THE JOURNAL ♦ SUMMER 2022 | 57
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