WILLIAM

E. (BILL) LOWRY JR. Kenyon ’56

The finer details of an individual’s initiation – while often remembered as a milestone by the brother and his close friends – often fade through the passing of the years from the consciousness of the larger Fraternity. Not so in the case of William E. (Bill) Lowry Jr., Kenyon ’56.

Leaving his boyhood home on the south side of Chicago, Lowry traveled east to Gambier, Ohio, to begin his college career. In the fall of 1952, the standard quarters for freshmen at the all-male Kenyon were Quonset huts that had served as temporary housing for the VA program. Lowry was a halfback on the football team and made fast friends.

Several players on the team, who were members of Beta Theta Pi, had extended a social membership to Lowry, but he had not been invited to join the Fraternity. “There was kind of a grassroots movement in the chapter to get Bill to be a full-fledged member of the Fraternity,” recalled Franklin H. Gingerich ‘56. It wasn’t long before the chapter announced its intention to pledge Lowry.

While the Fraternity’s constitution or laws imposed no restrictions with regard to race, color or creed upon those considered for membership, the initiation of a Black student had simply not – to the knowledge of Fraternity officers – been done prior to the spring of 1954.

The chapter received numerous calls from alumni about the matter. Some alumni approved. Others did not. James A. Hughes Jr. ’55, recalls speaking with then-General Secretary Seth R. Brooks, St. Lawrence 1922, who suggested the chapter delay the initiation until it could consult with alumni and Fraternity officers. “We weren’t trying to make a statement,” Hughes said. “There was absolutely no reason not to initiate him. For us, it was just a natural thing to do.”

Lowry was initiated into the Beta Alpha Chapter on April 27, 1954, just three weeks before the United States Supreme Court announced its historic decision on Brown v. Board of Education. A 25- year-old Martin Luther King Jr. was working on his dissertation in systematic theology at Boston University, Rosa Parks was still conforming to Montgomery’s segregationist busing policies and Kenyon College had graduated its first two Black students just two years earlier.

Sixty-eight years later, Lowry’s college days are but a few moments in what has been a remarkable life. He harbors no bitterness about the circumstances resulting from his initiation, and even muses, “I am ‘the Kenyon affair.’”

In 1988, former Kenyan College President and Vice President of Inland Steel William G. Caples III ’32, and former First National Bank of Chicago President Richard L. Thomas ’53, invited Lowry to serve on the board of trustees of Kenyon College – a position he held for more than two decades.

During that tenure, Lowry made it his personal mission to make both Kenyon’s student body and its faculty more diverse. He has filled a similar role in his service to Beta Theta Pi.

A General Convention veteran and former Convention vice president, Lowry served on the Foundation Board of Directors from 2011-2015 as chairman of the nominating committee. In June 2020, General Secretary Wayne Kay, Virginia Tech ’73, announced the creation of a new, Board-level Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Charged with analyzing all aspects of the Fraternity, this historic announcement included the appointment of Lowry as commission chairman.

When asked to once again play a role in driving the Fraternity to do something so bold, Lowry remarked: “Sixty-six years ago, a group of young men at Kenyon College also did something pretty bold. This is the right thing to do, and it is certainly the right time. I will do whatever my beloved Beta Theta Pi asks of me.”

FRANCIS