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Message from the Presh)ent
Year 77, Issue 3
Brother LeRoy Lowery, III March 2000
must hww. as much as possible, in our beautiful art... what we are talking about -and the only way to know is to have lived and loved and cursed and oundered attd enjoyed and suffered. Ithink I don't regret asingle "excess ”of my responsive youth -1 only regret, in my chilled age, certain occa¬ sions and possibilities 1didn'/ embrace. ”Henry James
The position of president of Mu Lambda has few perks, but one of them was available on
ISaturday, February 19. After meeting with the Brothers and Beaus during aProject Alpha session, Ijoined agroup o?Mu Lambda and Beta Brothers in visiting Brother Wesley Speller {Beta 32) on the occasion of his SOlst birthday. We did not want to overwhelm Brother and Mrs. Speller (she being 96 years young), so the visit was limited to only 10 Brothers. As
president, 1was afforded the opportunity to become one of the ten. Joining Brothers Julius ,Brice, Ed Norwood, Curtis Hunigan, Wayland McClelland, John Roper, Arthur Freeman, and Shirley Brown from Mu Lambda were Brothers Willis Miles (president), Brandon Neal, and Roderick Thompson of Beta. Brother Speller was in good spirits and welcomed the opportu¬ nity to fellowship with us. He admits to having some "not so good days", but Saturday w a s a tgood one. His grip was rm, his humor was swift and his voice was steady. As he stood ;with us to sing the Fraternal Hymn my emotions were as high as Ihave experienced at any fraternity event, with the possible exception of the night Icrossed the “burning sands” into .Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Brother Speller was obviously proud to be an Alpha m a n .
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and Iwas proud to be apart of agroup that could bring joy to one who epitomizes what the
Jewels had in mind. Brother Speller is special to me not just because of the years he has been
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on earth, but because of the actions he has taken in his life and the love he has of our Frater¬
nity —after 68 years! Ithank all that participated in the celebration and, as Itold Brother E
.Speller as we left his home, Ilook forward to repeating it next year, for birthday number 102!
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If you read the list of nancial Brotliers carefully you will notice an increase of 19
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since the last issue of the Torch, Our rolls now number 139 and climbing! Welcome back!
Ifyouhavenotreservedyourtableforthe5'*’AnnualMuLambdaGala,pleasecall
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Brother Keith “Kubweza” Johnson, 202-777-2648 x4957, as soon as possible. The affair
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,promises to be one you can be proud to bring your spouse and/or guests. Each Brother is en¬ couraged to pick up his tickets at the next meeting while table selection is still good. The black-tie affair at the Grand Hyatt Regency is sure to be one of the highlights of the fraternal i year and you want to be in that number. Remember we now have the capability to put your ticket costs on your Visa or Mastercard. j
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Though last month was “Black History Month” Ineglected to discuss it at the meet- i ing or in the Torch. Long-time members of Mu Lambda will recall that the late Brother
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Rupert Picott, achapter member and past Eastern Vice-President, started the concept. For the ' next meeting Iwould like to test your knowledge by asking for the answers to the following ; questions; Who was the most recent U.S. President of African-American descent? How many ! can you name in all? Wliat is aCarian? What famous author was aCarian? Who is the Af- ;
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rican military strategist from Carthage? Wlio is his great-grandson, often called “The Father j
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of Russian Literature?” Who performed the rst open-heart surgery? Who patented the ele- 1 vator? «Who invented the tungsten lament that led to the electric lamp? Who invented the gas mask and the automatic (traf c) stop signal? (Answers at the meeting and next month’s
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Henry .A. Caills, M.D. Charles H. Chapman Ceorge BKelley Eugene KJones. Nathaniel A. Murray, RoDen H. Ogle, Vertner W. Tandy
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