A national fraternal order with long ties to the Thomasville community plans to host a significant celebration here this week.

In conjunction with its 150th anniversary celebration, Kappa Alpha Order, a preeminent national college fraternity, plans on Wednesday to hold a regional “Convivium” – the annual celebration of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s birthday – for alumni residing across south Georgia and north Florida.

Special guest attendee for the Thomasville Sesquicentennial Convivium will be KA’s 39th Knight Commander William E. Dreyer, the national fraternity leader who has served in that role since 2011.

Lee, considered the spiritual founder of KA, served as president of what was then Washington College in Lexington, VA, following the end of the Civil War and provided the fraternity’s four student founders a role model for the high ideals of character, leadership and achievement they sought to emulate in their lives, explained Tom Faircloth, who was initiated at Mercer University and later went to serve on the fraternity’s executive council.

“These four men sought to bind their friendship by a ‘mutual pledge of faith and loyalty’ and sought to preserve the masculine virtues of chivalry, respect for others, honor and reverence for God and women,” Faircloth explained of character traits they identified in Lee.

Lee declined many generous offers of position and privilege following the Civil War to assume the presidency of the small Washington College – today’s Washington & Lee University – a role that gave him the opportunity to be of service and influence from 1865 until his death in 1870. During that period, he also used his quiet influence and counsel to make the re-entry of the former states of the Confederacy into the Union easier to help heal the wounds between America’s North and South.

Research by KA alum Donald Davis Jr. uncovered, for example, an anecdote of Lee’s careful admonishing of a bitter Southern mother: “Madam, forget your animosities, and make your sons Americans.”

In life and in death, he is remembered as a great gentleman, a Christian influence and a noble leader; as celebrated a leader as Winston Churchill proclaimed him “the noblest American who ever lived,” Faircloth said, adding that KA is the only Greek letter college fraternity who traces its legacy and inspiration from a living human.

Celebrations of Convivium are held annually by active and alumni chapters of the Order on or around Lee’s January 19 birthdate. Traditionally, toasts to the spiritual founder’s legacy are given using water – “a liquid clear and spotless as his fame,” as KA’s recite – as Lee was a non-drinker of alcohol.

The Kappa Alpha Order’s long ties to Thomasville go back at least 113 years, when Charles H. Watt and John Watt were inducted into the active chapter at Davidson College in 1902, the first of many Watts to join KA over at least three generations, according to the organization’s national archives.

Since then, many Thomasville KAs have held significant positions of leadership, including W.H. Flowers Jr., the driving force behind the growth and expansion of Flowers Baking Co. into Flowers Foods, a national baked foods leader; members of the Kelly family who operated the Times-Enterprise for many decades; a number of Harvard family members who ran Sunnyland Packing Co.; at least three Thomasville mayors – Heeth Varnedoe Jr., W.A. Watt and Faircloth; and countless other business and civic servant leaders, leading attorneys and prominent physicians who have been positively impacted by the fraternity’s life-lessons in character and leadership.

Today, young men hailing from Thomas County are active in college chapters at the University of Georgia, Old Miss, Wofford College and Valdosta State and West Georgia State Universities, among others.

The Kappa Alpha Order was founded on December 21, 1865, at what is now Washington & Lee University. Currently, the fraternity is represented by active chapters and alumni chapters throughout the United States, with a stated mission of helping modern men establish a moral compass on campus.

The regional Sesquicentennial Convivium is planned for Wednesday evening at Glen Arven Country Club, beginning at 6 p.m. Thomasville area KA alumni may make reservations for the event as late as noon Wednesday by calling Crocker Realty at 228-0552.