A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
The Reclamation and Rededication Aspects of Kappa Alpha Psi Golden Anniversary Banquet Indiana University August 29, 1961 C. Rodger Wilson, Grand Polemarch
By Kevin Scott, Grand Historian
S ixty years ago, the Fraternity celebrated its 50 th Anniversary on the campus of Indiana Univer- sity. One of the noteworthy occurrences at this milestone event was a stirring speech delivered at the Golden Anniversary Banquet by outgoing Grand Polemarch, C. Rodger Wilson. Our longest-serving Grand Polemarch took this opportunity to speak on the theme of Reclamation and Rededication. The original typed speech is one of his rare artifacts that I recovered for our records through my dedicated efforts towards archive recovery. It is a timeless message that is appropriate for this new fraternal year. This speech was never made available to our members to be seen in print before now. For the ben- efit of our brothers who were unable to hear this speech delivered and others whose memory may need some help recalling his oration, I proudly share the words of our 16 th Grand Polemarch: Brother Peters; Venerable Founders; Distinguished Grand and Past Grand Officers, Province Officers, Active and Alumni Chapter Officers, and holders of the Laurel Wreath and Elder Watson Diggs Awards; Delegates and brothers, I am pleased and honored to join with you in fellowship on this historic Golden An- niversary occasion. Your demonstration of brotherhood kindles a great glow in my heart. On the morning of the first Grand Chapter day, we spoke on the reflective and projective aspects of fra- ternity. Reclamation and Rededication are the culmi- nating elements of our Golden Anniversary theme, as well-chosen and significant a theme as could have been conceived at this point in our developmental history. Here is the framework within which we must give prac- tical meaning to our central principle of achievement.
C. Rodger Wilson, 16 th Grand Polemarch
tion of Independence as the central principle of America, a prin- ciple that gave not only liberty to the American people, but hope for all time to the people of the world. And later, he affirmed that the ideals for which America stands, the ideals expressed and implied by the Declaration of Independence, “must not perish from the earth.” Out of the 1848 Revolution against oppression and autocracy in Europe, there came to America the young, and brilliant German Carl Schurz committed to the central principle of doing “something really valuable for the general good.” Such was the spell of the American ideal upon a great-hearted European liberal in the dark years of the middle nineteenth century. Within the fifty-year period immediately following the passing of Lincoln, and five years after the death of Schurz, Kappa Alpha Psi had its beginning as a protest against the very opposition and autoc- racy that characterized the continents of Europe and America, and, of course, the campus that gave us birth. It came as a revolution, if you please, against similar social and economic injustices as moti- vated the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution of 1848. Kappa Alpha Psi came as a declaration of the rights of men, all men, to the fruits of a professed democracy. That declaration
In 1861, the immortal Lincoln referred to the Declara-
52 | FALL 2021 ♦ THE JOURNAL
VIRTUAL 85 TH GRAND CHAPTER MEETING
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker