Harold E. Cheatham, Clemson Professor Emeritus of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, IDE Fellow, and 2025 Kenelly-Voss Distinguished Emeriti, will be recognized by his peers in the District of South Carolina as a South Carolina Alpha Living Legend of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. This special recognition will occur during the 65th Annual South Carolina District Conference on October 10, 2025.
Cheatham is being recognized for his outstanding contributions to the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the community at large. In this his 67th year of membership, Cheatham, a Life Member, noted having served as undergraduate chapter president immediately upon induction but shared that he has not held an office since then, preferring to serve and lead from the middle. He has worked on a variety of fraternity projects, beginning with his membership in Gamma Nu at Penn State University where also he served as chapter advisor during his time as a Penn State faculty member.
Organizing and leading primarily education initiatives has been Cheatham’s passion. He is a charter member of lota lota Lambda Chapter, seated at Cornell University, where he was named Man of the Year in 1967.
Alpha Phi Alpha initially was a literary and social studies club founded at Cornell University in response to racial segregation practices and social isolation of those days. Since its chartering in 1906 the Fraternity has embodied its motto “First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All,” as it addresses social issues including apartheid, AIDS, urban housing, and related economic, cultural, and political issues of interest particularly to people of color.
Nationally, Alpha Phi Alpha chapters engage a variety of community service programs including A Voteless People Is a Hopeless People, My Brother’s Keeper, and Go To High School, and Go To College. In 1996, the fraternity established the World Policy Council — a think tank to research, write, and advocate on pressing international issues. The fraternity’s alumni chapters also conduct philanthropic programs in collaboration with the March of Dimes, Head Start, the Boy Scouts of America, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
Cheatham is an active member in the Penn State Gamma Nu Alumni Association and an active member of the graduate chapter Rho Delta Lambda, chartered in Anderson, South Carolina, where his energies have for the last fifteen years been centered on education and development activities, including initiating and chairing the annual MLK Celebration and promotion of scholarship and academic excellence of local regional youth.
