Dr. Robert D. Brazil (Iota 1958): Educator, Professor, Author
Robert S. Bates (Iota 1947): U.S. Postal Executive
Director of the Paideia Institute of Hyde Park, Dr. Brazil received degrees from Chicago Teachers College, De Paul University, and the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana, with advanced graduate studies at Northwestern University, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the University of Oxford, England. He served as principal of Chicago’s Francis Parker and Sullivan High Schools respectively. He is the author of The Engineering of the Paideia Proposal, Memoirs of Bronzeville, and A Covenant for Change. He has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, National College of Education, and Northern Illinois University.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Bates obtained in 1948 his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago at age nineteen. He then went to work for the United States Postal Service, where he rose through the ranks from clerk to postmaster. He held various supervisory positions in the Chicago Post Office and wasAssistant Operations Manager of the South Suburban Postal Facility. After earning his MBA at the University of Chicago, he was promoted to Operations Manager at the O’Hare Airport Mail Facility in Chicago and then to the Director of Mail Processing at the Chicago Main Post-Office. A longtime member of the Chicago (IL) Alumni Chapter, Brother Bates entered the Chapter Invisible in 2011. His son, the Honorable Fredrick H. Bates (Chicago Alumni 1994) is a municipal court judge in Chicago, IL.
Clobert B. Broussard (Iota 1921): Educator, City Alderman
Broussard graduated from the University of Chicago and earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University. He taught in the St. Louis (MO) public school system for many years. In 1948, he became president of the St. Louis Urban League. In 1969, he was elected as the city’s first African American city alderman. Brother Broussard entered the Chapter Invisible in 1994. The C. B. Broussard Papers are held in Special Collection, Olin Library, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.
Joseph G. Bertrand (Iota 1953): All American Basketball Player, Banker, City Treasurer
A 1954 graduate of University of Notre Dame, Bertrand was the school’s first African American basketball player and an honorable mention All American. He moved from the hardwood in college to the tough world of Chicago city politics. Aligned politically with the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, Bertrand ran for the city’s office of treasurer which he won thus becoming the first African American to win a city-wide election. He also served as alderman for the seventh ward of Chicago and was president of a savings and loan on the city’s south side. Brother Bertrand entered the Chapter Invisible in 1990.
Dr. Girard T. Bryant (Iota 1923): Educator, Past Grand Historian
Dr. Bryant served as Iota Chapter Polemarch during his undergraduate years and graduated from University of Chicago in 1926. He earned master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Kansas and Washington (MO) University respectively. Bryant enjoyed a distinguished career in public school and university education in Kansas City, MO. Bryant served as Polemarch of the Kansas City (MO) Alumni Chapter. In 1941, he was elected as the seventh Grand Historian of Kappa Alpha Psi ® succeeding revered Founder Elder Watson Diggs. Dr. Bryant entered the Chapter Invisible in 1993.
Chester Blair, Esq. (Iota 1952): Attorney
A 1952 graduate of Chicago Teachers College, Blair earned a J.D. degree from Roosevelt University. An attorney based in Chicago for many years, Blair was the first African American elected president of the Chicago Bar Association. Blair also wrote a weekly column for the Chicago Daily Defender. Brother Blair entered the Chapter Invisible in 2015.
William D. Burns (Iota 1997): Political Strategist, State Congressman, City Alderman, Entrepreneur Burns earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago. A former Illinois state representative representing the 26th state district and Chicago alderman representing Chicago’s fourth Ward. Burns worked closely with U.S. President Barack Obama, serving as deputy campaign director for Obama’s 2000 successful U.S. senatorial campaign and as deputy political director for Obama’s historic presidential campaign in 2008.
Benjamin Bluitt (Iota 1950): All-American Basketball Player Basketball Coach
A graduate of Loyola University-Chicago, Bluitt was the school’s first African American basketball player and a member of the school’s athletic Hall of Fame. He was head basketball coach at Chicago’s DuSable and Farragut high schools. He also was head basketball coach at University of Detroit (1970-1974) and Cornell University (1975-1980) where he was the first African American head coach in the Ivy League. Brother Bluitt entered the Chapter Invisible in 2000. Dr. J Maxwell Bond, Sr. (Iota 1920): Educator, University President
Cyrus Colter, Esq. (Iota 1935): Attorney, Author, Professor
A graduate of Ohio State University, Colter earned a law degree in 1940 from Chicago’s Kent College of Law. After serving in WWII, Colter worked in private law in Chicago while serving on many community boards. He served for over two decades on the Illinois Commerce Commission. Colter transitioned from a legal career to a literary one in the late 1960s. He became a prominent author of short stories such as The Beach Umbrella (1970) and novels including The Hippodrome (1973), Night Studies (1979) and A Chocolate Soldier (1988). In 1974, Northwestern University appointed Colter as chairman of the Department of African American Studies making him the first AfricanAmerican to hold an endowed chair at the university. In 1998, he was inducted into the Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. The Cyrus Colter Papers are maintained in the Vivian G. Harsh Research collection of Afro-American History and Literature, part of the Chicago Public Library and at the Northwestern University Library in Evanston, IL. Brother Colter entered the Chapter Invisible in 2002.
Dr. Bond earned a bachelor’s degree from what is now Roosevelt University, master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He served as dean at Dillard University (1938-1940) and as administrator at Tuskegee Institute (1940-1944). From 1950-1954, he was president of the University of Liberia. He was the younger brother of the late Dr. Horace Mann Bond (Epsilon 1920), uncle of the late civil right leader Julian Bond and father of prominent architect, the late J. Max Bond Jr. Dr. Bond Sr. entered the Chapter Invisible in 1991.
64 | WINTER ISSUE THE JOURNAL
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
THE JOURNAL WINTER ISSUE | 65
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