\ \ / ' / ' hen the Awards Committee \^J announced the winner of the "Alumni Brother of the Year" competition to those assembled at the Diamond Jubilee Formal Banquet, few were surprised to hear the result. For, had there been any "handicapping" going on in the convention halls, Benedict College President Henry Ponder would have been the odds-on favorite. And, indeed, Brother Ponder was cited as one of the Fraternity's two outstanding Brothers during Alpha's 75th year. Brother Ponder attended Douglass High School in Wewoka, Oklahoma, before entering Langston University — where he was initited into Beta Kappa Chapter. While a member of Beta Kappa, he was one of five undergraduates elected Lay Members of the Fraternity's Executive Council (now the national Board of Directors) during the 1950 General Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Brother Ponder has had a distinguished career in both the teaching of economics and business and in administration. He has served at Virginia State College, where he became Chairman of the AgriBusiness Department; Fort Valley State College, heading the Department of Business and Economics; and Alabama A & M University, serving as both Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Since 1973, he has been President of Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina.
Henry Ponder
After assuming this position, Brother Ponder quickly established himself as a leader in his community and the state. He is active with some twenty-five local agencies and organizations, ranging from the Executive Committee of the Central South Carolina Council of the Boy Scouts of America, to the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (Columbia Branch). He also serves as President of the South Carolina Association of Colleges and Universities. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York-based Joint Council on Economic Education; Vice The Sphinx/Fall 1981
President of the American Baptist Association of Colleges and Universities; a member of the Board of Directors of J. P. Stevens and Company, Inc. Today, over thirty years after being elected to his first national leadership post in Alpha Phi Alpha, Brother Ponder continues to work for the Fraternity. He recently completed a term as President of Columbia's Alpha Psi Lambda Chapter and, for the past several years, he has served as Director of the Southern Region's Leadership Development and Citizenship Education Institute. This youth development program is held
each summer at Benedict for high school youth from the seven southern states. Dr. Ponder served as Chairman of the Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation, Inc., for two years (1979-80) and, in Dallas, he was elected a member of the Foundation's Board of Directors. A leader as a college student, and now as an active alumni member, the selection of Brother Henry Ponder demonstrated the type of leadership development that Alpha has fostered through the years — thus, making the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee a possibility, and a reality. 11