NATIONAL FOUNDERS’ DAY THE BAHAMAS
Left: Inaugural Military and Veterans Commission Chairman Hawthorne “Pete” Proctor presented leadership case studies that deeply engaged. Right: Undergraduate brothers participating in a group asignment.
What unfolded over the next hour felt less like a leadership workshop and more like a live jazz session. In one group, a young brother stood when called. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Brother Smith asked. “An oral surgeon,” the brother replied quickly. “Any dentists in the room?” Brother Smith turned to scan the audience, and hands went up. “Before you leave today, you’re going to get his information,” he said. Two groups over, another undergraduate, this one from a chapter in Jacksonville, FL, declared that he wanted to become a PGA professional and own his own golf course. “You got game?” Smith grinned. “Yes, sir. Right now, I’m shooting around 75 to low 80s,” the young brother answered, as an entire ballroom of Kappa men laughed and impressively murmured. This was leadership education in real
time: not abstract competencies on a slide, but an elder brother insisting that every aspiration be matched with a relationship and every dream with a living mentor. “We are not competing against each other,” Brother Smith reminded them later. “What are you doing to put other brothers into places where they know they need to be?” Major General Hawthorne L. “Pete” Proctor (Petersburg (VA) AL 1974) offered insights into resilience. The two-star general who is revered within the fraternity, serves as Kappa’s Chair- man of Military & Veterans Affairs Committee, stepped to the podium with a different charge: how does an organization as old as Kappa Alpha Psi withstand shocks—and still move forward? “Resilience is the ability for an orga- nization to withstand or recover from difficulties, and it isn’t accidental.”
He reminded the room that seven of Kappa’s ten founders had served in the military, and four had served in World War I. The fraternity’s DNA, Brother Procter argued, is already laced with sacrifice and service. But history, in his view, was not a museum. It was a mandate. “In my day, we used to sing ‘we shall overcome,’” he said. “Today, we ought to say, ‘we’re not going back.’” Brother Proctor challenged brothers to stretch the concept of brotherhood beyond step shows and reunions, and into the messy, contested arena of civic life. “Souls to the polls,” he urged: voter registration, turnout, and accountability in neighborhoods where cynicism about elections had become an easy refuge. The message was unmistakable. Leadership in Kappa in 2026 means more than running a chapter meeting efficiently. It means understanding that
WINTER 2026-2026 ♦ THE JOURNAL 39
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