TO THE CHAPTER INVISIBLE
Victor Roberts 1922–2022 Businessman, U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Army
By Aaron Williams
Psi Fraternity, Inc., and was selected as a member of the college's Pan-Hellenic Council. Roberts was called to serve his country in January 1943. He served in the United States with the 92 nd Infan- try (Buffalo) Division in the European Theater of Operations through Decem- ber of 1945. Roberts was promoted to Master Sergeant of his unit. He served with honor and distinction, awarded three Bronze Battle Stars, an Outstand- ing Unit Citation, the Combat Infantry Badge, World War II Victory Medal, and Good Conduct Medal. He continued to serve during the Korean War in 1950 and 1951. He was also an executive with the United States Postal Service for 39 years having retired 1981 before joining his sons in the infancy of their family business. Over the next four decades, the company would become one of the leading minority owned businesses in the United States. Roberts was the Senior Vice Presi- dent and Comptroller of this rapidly growing business empire known as the Roberts Companies. Together they would oversee the creation of shopping centers, television and radio stations, office buildings, a cellular telephone company, a broadcast tower company, hotels, restaurants, housing-single fam- ily, townhouse and apartment devel- opments, an engineering consulting company, the premiere national MBE/ WBE consulting firm, a premium and advertising business, a pawn shop, the renovation and operation of the old American Theatre into the Roberts Or- pheum Theatre in downtown St. Louis, a housing development in the Bahamas, and many more entrepreneurial pur- suits. Harris-Stowe honored him as a Distinguished Alumni of Harris-Stowe.
With his wife Delores, Roberts and the family have been parishioners of All Saints Episcopal Church for over 60 years, the first Black Episcopal Church West of the Mississippi. Brother Victor Roberts was preceded in death by his wife of 74 years, best friend and travel- ing companion, Delores Talley Roberts, on December 30, 2020, and his sister Marion Roberts Douglass. He is survived by his daughter Lori A. Roberts, sons Michael (Jeanne) Rob- erts Sr., Steven (Eva) Roberts Sr., and Mark W. Roberts, and grandchildren Michael (Stephanie) Roberts Jr., Jeanne (Jay) Johnson, Fallon Roberts, Meaghan (Je'Caryous) Johnson, Steven Roberts Jr., Christian (Maren Pratt) Roberts, and Darci (Ricardo Dixon) Roberts. Great- grandchildren Jay Johnson II, Jeanne Johnson IV, Je'Caryous Johnson II, August Johnson, Houston Johnson, Elek Roberts, Valentina Roberts, Giselia Rob- erts, and Michael Roberts III. Roberts is also survived by his sister Eddie June Forrest and brother-in-law Rev. William (Judy) Talley III, and scores of cousins, nephews, and nieces.
P atriarch of the Roberts family, which includes the 68 th Laurel Wreath Laureate Michael V. Roberts, Sr. (Beta Nu 1969), Steven C. Roberts, Sr. (Chi 1971), Mark W. Roberts (Chi 1977), and grandsons Michael V. Roberts, Jr. (Beta Nu 2000) and Steven C. Roberts (Iota Chi 2008), Victor Roberts entered the Chapter In- visible at his home on Thursday, March 24, 2022, at 99. He was born on October 6, 1922, in West Helena, AR, to Edna Locke Roberts and Dr. Squire Victor Roberts, MD. The Roberts family moved to St. Louis, where Dr. Roberts established his practice and was one of the first physi- cians who had patients in the historic Homer G. Phillips Hospital. Roberts was educated in the St. Louis Public Schools, attending Mar- shall Elementary and Sumner High School. In 1939, he enrolled at Stowe Junior College, where he made the Dean's List that year and also won a mixed doubles tennis tournament. The following year, he was in the first class to move to the new Stowe Teachers Col- lege building at Kennerly and Pendleton Avenues. In 1941, he was one of the first class of men to be admitted to the four-year Stowe Teachers College (now Harris-Stowe University). Along with his studies, Victor pursued athletics in college, playing on the first Men's Var- sity Basketball Team in 1941 and 1942. With four of his friends in Febru- ary 1942, Roberts became a Charter Member of the Harris-Stowe College Chapter, the Beta Nu of Kappa Alpha
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