Thomas D. Pawley III, 97, already is a noted playwright, author, actor, poet, university professor and community leader.
Next Sunday, local, state and national officers of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity - joined by former students, colleagues and community leaders - will gather in Jefferson City at the Capitol Plaza Hotel for a 1:30 p.m. luncheon to honor Pawley's 80 years of service to the fraternity.
Born Aug. 5, 1917, Pawley was 17 when he was initiated into the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in 1934.
"We want to recognize Dr. Pawley's tremendous impact on the fraternity," said Jerome Offord Jr., president of the fraternity's Beta Zeta Lambda chapter, "but also his contributions to Lincoln University and the Jefferson City community.
"We are so honored and privileged to have him right here in Jefferson City."
Tickets to the event are $45 per person and can be purchased from chapter members or by emailing Offord at [email protected].
Ticket sales at the door will be limited.
In addition to his undergraduate fraternity service, Pawley served as vice president of the Jefferson City chapter from 1975-79, and as the national fraternity's historian from 1993-96.
Pawley received the Award of Merit, the national fraternity's highest honor, in 1996, and was appointed national historian emeritus in 2008.
The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1906. In 2006, Pawley wrote the lyrics to the "Hymn to the Founders," which was presented at the Centennial Convention's Public Meeting in Washington, D.C.
"I am very proud of that," Pawley said.
During his fraternity career, Pawley also chaired the Education Foundation and the Committee on Internal Structure.
He was inducted into the Midwestern Region Hall of Fame and served as Midwestern Regional vice president, Missouri District Director and Central Missouri Director.
Pawley was 19 when he graduated from Virginia State College in 1937. He earned his master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1939 - where the fraternity news release noted one of his classmates was future playwright Tennessee Williams. He also earned his doctorate from Iowa in 1949.
Pawley taught one year, 1939-40, at Prairie View A&M State College in Texas - where his future wife, Ethel, earned her bachelor's degree in physical education.
The couple was married a little more than 71 years - from Aug. 14, 1941, until she died Oct. 23, 2012.
Pawley began teaching English, speech and theater classes at Lincoln University in 1940 - and retired in 1988.
"He was known as a fair, but demanding professor," the fraternity's news release reported.
As a student, Ethel (Pitts) Walker was a member of LU's drama group, the "Stagecrafters," which Pawley helped launch in 1963. After graduating from Lincoln, Walker became a teacher and later served as interim chair of San Jose State University's Arts, TV & Radio department.
Walker said Pawley "was tough, but those are the kind of professors you need to help you become a better student, a better person. Those teachers that don't challenge you (and) let you slide by (are) not preparing you for the real world."
The fraternity's news release noted that, as a Lincoln professor, Pawley also served the university in various positions including English department head, Humanities and Fine Arts division chairman and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
In 1986, he received the LU National Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award.
Pawley was heading LU's Communications department when he retired in 1988, and received a curators appointment as distinguished professor of speech and theater.
In 1952, Pawley initiated one of the first college summer-theater programs for black students and, during his LU tenure, he directed 75 student plays.
In 2011, Lincoln renamed its Langston Hughes Theater, in Martin Luther King Hall, as the Pawley Theater in his honor.
Away from the classroom, Pawley's community involvement included membership on the advisory committee that raised several million dollars to renovate the old Jefferson City High School into the Miller Performing Arts Center.
He served as president of the Thomas Jefferson Library Board from 1970-72, when the "new" library building (now known as the Missouri River Regional Library) was erected at 214 Adams St.
"I signed the contract that built that building," Pawley said.
He was the library board's treasurer in 1974.
Pawley also served on the Vestry at Grace Episcopal Church.
He served as president of the Speech and Theater Association of Missouri and also was a member of the separate Missouri Humanities Missouri Arts councils.
He received the Missouri Arts Council award in 1999.