Lest We Forget - Makers of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

DR. OSCAR J. COOPER A FOUNDER OF OMEGA

Our history tells us that Brother Cooper was guided in the discipline to become a sturdy man. He mastered the art of being a fine gentleman. Brother Cooper was neat and punctilious in his dress and distinctly chivalrous in his manner. Never flashy or ostentatious but always fashionable, prim, and precise.1

It was Oscar J. Cooper, not Doctor Cooper, but the methodical lad of promise, who helped organize the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and was selected to serve as the first Grand Keeper of Records and Seal. During the second year of the Fraternity, he served as the Grand Basileus.2

PROFESSOR FRANK COLEMAN A FOUNDER OF OMEGA

Brother Coleman wanted to know why things happened. In scholarship, he attained high honors and bearing. He was a leader. He graduated from M-Street (High) School with high honors and continued his studies and graduated with great distinction from Howard, and his record was so outstanding that at once he was made an instructor (Chair of the Physics Department) in Physics.1

The reader must remember, however, that it was not Professor Frank Coleman, head of the Department of Physics of Howard University, who helped organize the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, but Frank Coleman, the junior, the undergraduate, who had just stepped upon the threshold of early manhood, who was searching for truth and trying during those strenuous times to demonstrate the brotherhood of the college man.2

BISHOP EDGAR A. LOVE A FOUNDER OF OMEGA

Brother Love while serving as a chaplain in the 365th infantry during World War I, saw action in the Vasquez Mountains and in the Argonne Forest (France), spending eight days in the great offensive. During those campaigns, Brother Love was slightly gassed. However, he continued to inspire the three thousand men who were on his supervision to live nobly as soldiers of the Cross. To the men in his regiment, his very name inspired them to press on.1

It was Rev. Edgar Love in the germ, the stripling in his ‘teens’, the youth of promise and vision who helped organize the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and start it on its pioneering way. In the process he served as the first Grand Basileus, holding the office for three terms. 2

DR. ERNEST E. JUST A FOUNDER OF OMEGA

Brother Just a Phi Beta Kappa and a PhD; honors are too numerous to mention in such a limited space. However, he collaborated with some of the best scientists in America and produced a standard work of “(General) Cytology”, which was published in 1924. Leading German biologists selected him as the best fitted among the world scholars to write a paper on Fertilization. He engaged in research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut (Germany) for Biology, at the private laboratories of the Crown heads of Europe, and received a 5 year grant totaling $80,000 for research.1

Ernest Everett Just, the young professor, joined his vision and genius with that of three undergraduate juniors—Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper and Frank Coleman—and helped organize the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. 2

1st Edgar A. Love 1911 - 1912

2nd Oscar J. Cooper 1912 - 1913

3rd Edgar A. Love 1913 - 1915

4th George E. Hall 1915 - 1916

5th James C. McMorries 1916 - 1917

6th Clarence F. Holmes 1917 - 1918

7th Raymond G. Robinson 1918 - 1920

8th Harold H. Thomas 1920 - 1921

9th Jasper Alston Atkins 1921 - 1924

10th John W. Love 1924 - 1924

11th George E. Vaughn 1924 - 1926

12th Julius S. McClain 1926 - 1929

13th Matthew W. Bullock 1929 - 1932

14th Lawrence A. Oxley 1932 - 1935

15th William E. Baugh 1935 - 1937

16th Albert W. Dent 1937 - 1940

17th Z. Alexander Looby 1940 - 1945

18th Campbell C. Johnson 1945 - 1947

19th Harry T. Penn 1947 - 1949

20th Milo C. Murray 1949 - 1951

21st Grant Reynolds 1951 - 1953

22nd John E. Potts 1953 - 1955

23rd Herbert E. Tucker, Jr. 1955 - 1958

24th I. Gregory Newton 1958 - 1961

25th Cary D. Jacobs 1961 - 1964

26th George E. Meares 1964 - 1967

27th Ellis F. Corbett 1967 - 1970

28th James S. Avery 1970 - 1973

29th Marion W. Garnett 1973 - 1976

30th Edward J. Braynon, Jr. 1976 - 1979

31st Burnel E. Coulon 1979 - 1982

32nd L. Benjamin Livingston 1982 - 1984

33rd Moses C. Norman, Sr. 1984 - 1990

34th C. Tyrone Gilmore 1990 - 1994

35th Dorsey C. Miller 1994 - 1998

36th Lloyd J. Jordan 1998 - 2002

37th George H. Grace 2002 - 2006

38th Warren G. Lee, Jr. 2006 - 2010

39th Andrew A. Ray 2010 - 2014

40th Antonio F. Knox, Sr. 2014 - 2018

41st David E. Marion 2018 -

Stanley Moreland Douglas 1919

Osceola Enoch McKaine 1920

William Stuart Nelson 1921

William Gilbert 1922

Campbell C. Johnson 1923-1924

Walter Herbert Mazyck 1925

John Prescott Murchinson 1926-1927

Samuel Malcom Dodson 1928-1934

Herman Dreer 1935

Robert D. Baskerville 1936

Frederick Sprague Weaver 1937-1944

Nathaniel D. Williams 1945-1946 (No Photo)

Charles W. Collins 1947-1948 (No Photo)

Ellis Franklin Corbett 1949-1964

Audrey Pruitt 1965-1970

William Otto McClarrin 1971-1973

Samuel Rudolph Shepard 1974-1983

Lemuel L. Johnson 1984-1990

Charles H. Turner III 1991-1999

Edward R. Davis 2000-2003

Isaiah Robinson 2003-2006

Rev. Walter T. Richardson 2007-2008

Michael A. Boykin 2009

Timothy W. Tyler/Troy Moore (Guest) 2010

Michael A. Boykin 2011-2014

Milbert O. Brown 2015-2020

Norm Senior 2020 - Present