WILMINGTON (NC) ALUMNI CHAPTER
A brief history…
In 1937, Brother Thomas E. Webber submitted a letter of request for the brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Inc. living in Wilmington, NC to formulate a chapter in Wilmington. After several years of meeting the qualifications to become a chapter, the petition was finally approved under Grand Polemarch, Bro. J. Ernest Wilkins, during the 1947 Grand Chapter Meeting in California. The Durham (NC) Alumni Chapter was instrumental in facilitating the petition for the brothers in Wilmington.
On February 14, 1948 the Wilmington Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. was chartered.
The Wilmington, North Carolina Chapter began its’ existence, February 21, 1948 at the office of the Brother L.W. Upperman M.D. The Charter was presented by the Middle Eastern Provincial Polemarch, at that time Bro. Thomas E. Ashe.
Special guest attending the ceremony and banquet which followed were: Bros. J.J. Henderson, Frank Burnett, James Hawkins, T.R. Webber from Durham, and Bro. Crawford Lane from the Rocky Mount Chapter.
The original members were: Eddie J. Keith, James R. Moore, William McRae, French I. Davis, L. H. Robinson, L.W. Upperman, Marion L. Fleming, William E. Clark, Ernest E. Miller, and Eugene E. Christian.
The officers elected launch the ship of Kappa in the Port of Wilmington were: Bro L.W Upperman, Polemarch; L.H. Robinson, Vice Polemarch; F.I. Davis, Keeper of Records; J.R. Moore, Keeper of Exchequer; Strategus, William McRae; Historian, Eddie J. Keith. Board of Directors: L.W. Upperman, L.H. Robinson, F.I. Davis, William McRae, and Edgar McMillian. The original Polemarch and Keeper of Records have done such an outstanding job that they have been retained in those positions up to now.
The membership is composed of Brothers from Fayetteville, Lumberton, Wilmington, and many other surrounding points. For a time the meetings were held on Sunday evening and the place was rotated between Wilmington and Fayetteville, which is a distance of 95 miles. In as much the distance created a hardship on either of the groups who came the farthest Elizabethtown was selected as the central meeting point.