Clemson staffer honored by Alpha Phi Omega

Published: September 14, 2009

Jack McKenzie image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON — A Clemson University alumnus and staff member is being honored as a role model for thousands of college students nationwide.

The 6,000-plus students expected to join Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity’s more than 360 campus chapters this fall will be known as the “Jack A. McKenzie Pledge Class.” McKenzie is an adviser to Clemson’s Alpha Phi Omega chapter, a 1976 graduate of Clemson and the university’s director of donor services.

The students will be encouraged to follow McKenzie’s example of leadership, friendship and service to others, said Mark Stratton, national vice president of Alpha Phi Omega and chairman of the fall pledge class namesake nomination committee.

“He is the consummate team player,” Stratton said, “and he, more than many others I know, takes on task after task when asked to do so. He is, far and away, exactly what a loyal and true brother of Alpha Phi Omega should be… he will be a great example to our future active members.”

Alpha Phi Omega has selected a national pledge class namesake honoree annually since 1946. Past honorees include Clemson President Emeritus Philip H. Prince and former U.S. presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

McKenzie, a Mullins native who has worked at Clemson for more than 30 years, pledged Clemson’s chapter of Alpha Phi Omega in 1973 and has been chapter adviser since 1980. In 1993, to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of his membership, he went through the pledge process again.

He is a member of Alpha Phi Omega’s national board of directors and was national president from 1998 to 2002. He has held other leadership positions at both the national and regional levels and is the namesake for the Jack A. McKenzie Award, which is given by Region IV of the fraternity. In 2002, he was selected as a torchbearer on Clemson’s leg of the Salt Lake City Olympic Torch Relay.

Alpha Phi Omega is a national coed service fraternity, college students gathered together in an organization based on fraternalism and founded on the principles of the Boy Scouts of America. Its purpose is to develop leadership, promote friendship and provide service to humanity. Since 1925, more than 357,000 students have chosen Alpha Phi Omega, making the fraternity the nation’s largest Greek letter fraternity.

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