Ennis Koonce never left a day of work without stopping by each coworker’s desk to say goodbye.

Those same coworkers now walk past the same neatly kept, now-vacant desk as a reminder of his untimely passing April 5.

Koonce had a multi-faceted career at OU. He served as an Adams Center resident director, higher education administration graduate student and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity member.

Those who worked with him said he had a passion for helping others.

“He loved helping students, mentoring, just stopping and talking to people,” resident director Lauren Carter said.

Before his passing, Koonce helped develop a program intended to help transport injured students living in residence halls to and from classes, said Jennifer Doughty, Housing and Food director of operations.

Koonce’s fondness for amusing wordplay inspired him to push for the name “Lending a Limb,” Doughty said.

Colleagues said he was clever and had a sharp wit.

“He created words, he coined phrases that became parts of his peers’ vocabulary,” said T. Elon Dancy, higher education professor. “He was very creative.”

Koonce was at OU to study higher education administration, and his dissertation was focused on African American male performance in college, Dancy said.

“He saw himself in a professional role of serving this population of students, either through mentoring or broader student affairs work,” Dancy said.

Koonce practiced kindness to those around him, but in a humble manner.

“He did it in such a way that it wasn’t a big show, being kind,” Doughty said. “He was very quietly and privately kind, like leaving notes on your desk.”

Doughty said Koonce never left the office without saying goodbye to each employee, and his loss is devastating.

“It sounds like such a small thing, but it’s really meaningful when someone takes the time out from everything else that’s going on,” Doughty said. “Every single day.”

Despite his passing, lessons learned from Koonce still linger.

“Like his big heart, it’s still impacting us on a day-to-day basis,” Carter said. “He is still teaching us stuff, even though he’s not physically here.”

Koonce taught her to be honest and true to herself, Carter said. Koonce also inspired others to do whatever they could to help people.

An avid cook, Koonce also informed Carter that he made the best turkey burger, though she never had the chance to try one.

“I’ve heard nothing but good reviews of all of his food,” Carter said. “If you gave that man a kitchen, he’d make you a meal.”

Still, he taught coworkers other lessons.

Resident director Klint Neal said Koonce taught him to follow his passions and helped him plan out his own career path.

Resilience is another lesson Koonce left behind.

“He hadn’t been well for some months, and he never gave up,” Klint said. “He was still very much involved in pursuing his Ph.D. and completing his classes, on top of his work in Housing and Food.”

After graduating, he planned to work helping students. He was interested in being a vice president of student affairs, directing resident life or deanship of student life, Dancy said.

“He wanted to do work that mattered to the issues around African American male performance in colleges and universities,” Dancy said.

His leadership skills sprang from his strong sense of self, Dancy said.

“He was not the type to succumb to peer pressure,” Dancy said. “He was often the leader in groups because of that.”

This quality made people want to be mentored by Koonce, Dancy said.

He earned his undergraduate degree in his home state of Georgia and left behind a similar legacy there.

“By the time he left Georgia to come to [OU], he left behind a countless number of students who missed him very much,” Dancy said.

“He lived life, with not one bad memory,” Carter said. “I can honestly say that he served every day with great purpose.”

It started with 12 black men at the University of Minnesota who started a social club in 1911.

The club became a chapter of the national Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in 1912. In less than a week, the fraternity will celebrate its 100th year on campus.

The historically black fraternity will celebrate in conjunction with the 80th Midwest Regional Convention of the national organization. The convention is a celebration of all chapters in the region.

Every year, chapters from the Midwest apply to host the convention. This year the Minnesota chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha will host.

“It’s been a long time coming; this is something we’ve been planning since we put in a bid about a year ago,” said Emeka Okafor, a pre-medicine and psychology senior.

The fraternity will start the event next Thursday at the McNamara Alumni Center. The evening will feature speakers, including communication studies senior and chapter President Anthony Gnakadja. Other student organizations on campus are scheduled to speak in recognition of the chapter. The convention will continue through April 15.

The convention will also serve as a commemoration of those who were initiated into the Minnesota chapter of the fraternity years ago. A room will display pictures of members since 1912. Many members who were initiated in the Mu chapter in the 1930s and ’40s are attending.

In preparation for the anniversary, the University provided the chapter a grant to help fund the convention and anniversary. The grant helped fund buses that will transport attendees from the University to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, where a large portion of the convention will be held.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. was first founded in 1905-1906 at Cornell University, after half of a dozen black students didn’t return to school the previous year because of the racism they experienced on campus. The fraternity is the oldest black fraternity in the nation.

Notable members of Alpha Phi Alpha include Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Black greek life in its entirety benefits from the success of Alpha Phi Alpha. Since 2009, four other historically black fraternities and sororities have returned to campus.

“We, as men of Alpha Phi Alpha, we want to be leaders; we want to improve the community to the best of our abilities,” Gnakadja said. “But we cannot always do that by ourselves. We need help.”

The brothers see their accomplishments as largely supported by the black sororities on campus.

“What are men without women,” Okafor said.

Members of the fraternity have worked long hours to pull the centennial celebration together. Most express excitement and anxiety in tandem.

“It’s going to be a really big event on campus,” Okafor said. “There’s going to be a lot of people here, and it should be really fun.”

Actor Hill Harper is supporting a new national partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC),  Call to Service for St. Jude initiative, which launched earlier this month.

“NPHC organizations have deep roots in education and making a difference in the lives of our youth. Engaging this richly diverse membership through the Call to Service for St. Jude initiative will help raise awareness about St. Jude in the African-American community, while sharing the hospital’s mission of treating the world’s sickest children with the best care.”  Key messages: There’s still time for NPHC members, family and friends to support help St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital provide the best care to the world’s sickest children at no cost to their family by visiting stjude.org/nphc.

One reason this partnership is of such significance is because it is critical that we continue to educate communities about the importance of resources and treatment for pediatric cancer, sickle cell screening and treatment for the disease as well as research aimed at improving the quality of life for those living with sickle cell disease.  The NPHC is composed of historically African-American international Greek letter Sororities and Fraternities. Participating organizations include: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

The shooting death of Trayvon Martin is one that has struck a chord with communities throughout the country, and students at Marshall University gathered Friday to remember Martin and to make the national conversation a local one.

More than 100 students, faculty and community members gathered at the Memorial Student Center Plaza for its own Justice for Trayvon rally, where the message was not one of anger, but one seeking camaraderie between people with any kind of difference said Jonathan Austin, vice president of Marshall’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.

“We’re not looking for a rebellion. It’s not about one race versus another. It’s about respecting and valuing another person’s life,” Austin said. “It’s a tribute to the life of a 17-year-old kid, who, for all we know, could have been a Marshall student next year. We’re commemorating a life lost.”

Reports indicate that Martin, 17, was wearing a hoodie and carrying candy and a bottle of tea he had purchased at a store in the neighborhood of his father’s home in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26 when he was shot and killed by volunteer neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.

Conflicting information has been reported as to what happened after Zimmerman called 911 to report Martin as a “suspicious person” until Martin was shot. Zimmerman told authorities he acted in self defense.

Zimmerman has not been arrested in connection to the shooting, and rallies, like the one on campus, have taken place throughout the country to call attention to the incident.

In a sign of support for Martin’s family, people throughout the country, including celebrities, a Congressman and participants in the event at Marshall, have worn hoodies to draw attention to the case.

Friday’s event was organized by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity & Delta Sigma Theta Sorority members.

Keelon Hinton, a professor of psychology at Marshall said the coverage of the event stems, in part, from how surprised many people were to have heard the incident occurred.

“We’re not here to debate what happened. We all know something wrong happened, that a boy was shot and killed. We are here to decide what we are going to do about it. We need to decide if this is the kind of society we want to live in,” Hinton said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all the same color and had the same family lives? It isn’t about whether you’re black, white, red, yellow or purple. We’re all different. Our skin is different colors and our family lives are different. Instead of pretending like we don’t see these differences, we need to acknowledge them and accept them.”

In addition to Hinton and Austin, speakers at the event included Brenda Green, executive director of the West Virginia ACLU, Kimberly White, president of the Huntington Branch of the National Association of Social Workers and the Rev. Donte’ Jackson, Pastor of First Baptist Church in Huntington.

McDonald’s Corp. CEO Jim Skinner is retiring and will be succeeded by the company’s No. 2 executive, President and Chief Operating Officer Don Thompson.

The Oak Brook-based fast-food company said this evening that Mr. Skinner, 67, will leave the company and the board on June 30 after 41 years. Mr. Thompson, 48, will take the helm on July 1.

“Jim’s stellar leadership has driven unprecedented momentum at McDonald’s,” McDonald’s Chairman Andy McKenna said in a statement. “Jim has brought to the table exceptional knowledge of McDonald’s restaurant operations and a keen sense of business know-how. As we look to the future, the board has every confidence that Don’s strategic leadership and global business insight make him the ideal CEO.”

Credited as one of the players in the company’s 2003 “Plan to Win” turnaround strategy, Mr. Skinner, who also was vice chairman, touted “being better, not just bigger” through remodeled restaurants, longer hours, a broader menu and a global marketing message that highlighted balanced and active lifestyles.

“Doing what’s right for our customers and our business has driven my passion as CEO of McDonald’s,” said Mr. Skinner in a statement. “I’m honored to have served and earned the trust of the board, our shareholders, franchisees, suppliers and the men and women of this great company.”

He added that under Mr. Thompson’s leadership, “I am extremely confident in the future of McDonald’s.”

Mr. Thompson is a 22-year McDonald’s veteran who hired on in 1990 as an electrical engineer. Born in Chicago and raised in Indiana, he moved into operations and management and was president of McDonald’s USA from 2006 to 2010 before moving into his current post. He was widely considered the frontrunner for CEO and has been credited with the success of the company’s McCafe beverage expansion.

“I’m humbled to take the baton as CEO of McDonald’s,” Mr. Thompson said in a statement. “Our management team is strong and will remain focused on the Plan to Win and on our three global priorities—optimizing the menu, modernizing the customer experience and broadening our accessibility to even more customers.”

Mr. Thompson is the first African-American to head McDonald’s, the world’s biggest restaurant company measured by revenue. He also is the only African-American CEO of a public company in Chicago and a new addition to the half dozen in the entire Fortune 500.

Mr. Thompson joined McDonald’s board in January 2011. He also is on the boards of Chicago-based Exelon Corp. and Northwestern Memorial Hospital and is a trustee of his alma mater, Purdue University.

McDonald’s has been roll for almost a decade. Its share price jumped 31 percent in 2011, the most of any of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Index. The stock closed at $96.72 Wednesday, after topping $100 in late December and as recently as March 7.

By market capitalization, McDonald’s is the biggest company in Illinois. By revenue, which rose to $27 billion last year, it is in the Top 10.

The announcement came just weeks before McDonald’s hosts its biannual worldwide franchisee convention.

Earlier this month, McDonald’s said its February sales missed analysts’ targets due to economic woes and Europe’s brutal winter. The company also surprised analysts by warning that the economy could hurt profits. Up till now, the company has been prospered and stolen market share from rivals.

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On January 15, 2012, graduate and undergraduate Alpha Kappa Alpha women along with the men of the Jericho Lodge #20, Free and Accepted Masons, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of PA partnered to celebrate the life Martin Luther King Jr.  The event was held at Barack Obama Academy of International Studies.

The event opened with a welcome to over 100 members and guests, followed by dinner and song by Brady and Brana Hill.  Mr. Andre’ McGee, Past Master followed by presenting the audience with a powerful video entitled “Keepers of the Dream” to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Event co-chair Jackie Blakey led the group discussion on how the guests in attendance and young people continue to keep the dream of Martin Luther King.

In addition to paying a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., military families were honored and recognized for their service and sacrifices to our country.  With the assistance of the Students Ambassadors at Pittsburgh Dilworth PK-5^th grade, the two organizations were able to present over 50 food baskets to veterans transitioning back into civilian living through a program sponsored by the Veteran’s Affairs Hospital.  Event co-chair, Dr. Monica Lamar is the principal of Pittsburgh Dilworth PK-5^th Grade.

The Alpha Mu Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. won the 2011 Outstanding Alumni Chapter of the Year Award at its district convention in Johnson City.

The Knoxville chapter has been in existence since 1930. The criteria for the award is based on fraternity and community service, as well as developing programs and activities to promote education and awareness on several causes in the Knoxville area, including voter’s education, Go To High School Go To College and Project Alpha.

The chapter will represent the Tennessee District at the regional Alpha Phi Alpha convention in Columbia, S.C., in March.

For more information, visit http://alphamulambda.com.

Family, friends and the Cody High School community are mourning the loss of a long-time teacher.

The body of 33-year-old Dwyone Joiner was found in his Sussex Street home in Detroit Wednesday.

Detroit Police say he was killed from a gun shot wound, but investigators are not releasing any other details into the death.

A source with the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office tells Action News the case is being handled as a homicide, and no weapon was found at the scene.

Family members of Mr. Joiner say he taught English and helped with the yearbook.

He had taught at Cody for 11 years.

“We are saddened that a teacher at Cody High School has died,” said a statement from Jennifer Mrozowski from the Office of Communications at Detroit Public Schools. “We have had a crisis team to talk to students and staff.”

Read more: http://www.wxyz.com//dpp/news/region/detroit/police-investigate-cody-high-school-teachers-death#ixzz1jwX9WZM9

A classmate. A fraternity brother. A colleague in the American struggle for civil rights. A high school student. Their lives intersected with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Decades later, on the holiday celebrating King’s life and the civil rights movement he led, these contemporaries of King recall how the young preacher from Atlanta influenced them.

Herman W. Hemingway, 79, Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Attorney and retired professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Hemingway first met King in 1952 when the two were Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity pledges. King was a doctoral student at Boston University. Hemingway was an undergraduate at nearby Brandeis University.

From the moment King walked through the door, said Hemingway, he stood out — serious and erudite.

“The doorbell rang and here comes this short guy with very brown skin,” Hemingway said. “And he’s a reverend. He was older than the rest of us. We were teenagers. We wanted to have fun, joke around, tease each other. . . He kind of distinguished himself from the rest of the group.”

King became the fraternity’s chaplain and a father figure, Hemingway said. He recalled how they never called King by his first name, only “Rev” or “Brother King.”

All pledges were required to remember a poem, William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus.”

“It exemplified how to deal with struggles and challenges and how to be self-sufficient,” Hemingway said. “It seemed to be a dress rehearsal for things he was later to face.”

How King influenced him: “I feel blessed to have met and spent time with Brother King. I was inspired by him as well. This was a man who was on a different wavelength than the rest of us.

“… We learned the importance of community efforts, brotherhood, self-reliance and respect for our own people. His contributions weren’t specific but his participation with us was the message. His contribution to the group was to keep it real and to encourage us to hang in there until we accomplished our goals. The collective nature of his participation was the inspiring part.”

Samuel DuBois Cook, 82, Atlanta

Retired president of Dillard University.

Cook and King were classmates at Morehouse College, both sons of Baptist ministers.

A friendship developed on the all-male Atlanta campus. King, as Cook remembers, was popular, outgoing and stylish.

An unforgettable experience for Cook was hearing King give the senior sermon at Morehouse in 1948, where a young King displayed the oratory skill that would help transform the nation.

“I remember M.L. saying in that sermon that there are moral laws in the universe that we cannot violate with impunity any more than we can violate physical laws with impunity,” Cook said. “He was talking about the moral order of the universe and our relationship as brothers in that universe. It was the most moving experience. It was a powerful, powerful address. He soared.”

Cook and King remained friends until his death. Cook still chuckles at how during a holiday gathering — in either 1966 or 1967 — he and his wife struggled over whether to serve King eggnog with a little something extra.

“I told her don’t just give ML this eggnog, put a little bourbon in it. She said, ‘No, you can’t do that. You can’t give him any bourbon,’ ” Cook said. “But she put a little in there. When she gave it to him he tasted it and said in his unique voice, ‘Sylvia, honey, I don’t know what in the world you put in this eggnog but whatever it was put in some more.’ “

How King influenced him: “The depth of his sincerity and his commitment to the kingdom of God had a great impact on me. M.L. was serious and sincere about social justice, about equality and about God. It challenged me. It made me want to be a better individual and to make a deeper commitment to the kingdom of God.

“That’s what ML was about, really, the kingdom of God.”

Dorothy Cotton, 81, Ithaca, N.Y.

Retired Dean of Students at Cornell University.

Cotton, as education director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, traveled the country with King. She did so when the civil rights movement was at its peak. Danger lurked everywhere.

Cotton was in the traveling party that went to Memphis in April 1968. She was with King on his last plane ride.

Cotton was set to fly back to Atlanta on April 4, the day King was killed.

“I was eating breakfast in the restaurant, when he called for me,” Cotton said. “His last words to me were ‘get a later plane.’ But I had to get back to Atlanta. I got on my 1 p.m. flight, got home and took a nap and said I would go to the office later. While I was taking a nap my neighbor rang my doorbell and said, ‘I really have some bad news, Dr. King has been shot.’ ”

Cotton knew of the dangers but believed in the civil rights movement. It’s why she left Virginia and followed her pastor, Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, who was head of the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality, to help King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta.

“I became director of education for SCLC,” Cotton said. “And my role was to plan the five-day sessions to help black folks un-brainwash themselves.”

How King influenced her: “After his death, I worked with Mrs. King to start the King Center … Now I spend a lot of my time speaking and teaching about Dr. King and the civil rights movement. I do a lot of work looking at the lessons we learned and helping people organize. People are doing a lot of creative things, building off of the civil rights struggle. I am also finishing my book, ‘If Your Back’s Not Bent: The Movement from Victim to Victory,’ which will be out soon. And I am always answering the question of Dr. King’s last book, ‘Where Do We Go from Here?’ ”

Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., 70, Atlanta

Dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College

As a high school student in the 1950s, Carter dreamed of attending Morehouse College, but couldn’t afford the tuition. In 1979, he finally got there.

Carter met King four times, first as a 10th grader in Columbus, Ohio when King visited his church.

“He asked my name and asked if I had considered [attending] Morehouse,” Carter said.

Carter would hear King speak again at a local high school.

“I was swept off my feet and rushed back to the school to call my mother to tell her I wanted to go to Morehouse,” Carter said. “But she was working three or four jobs and we couldn’t afford it. So I decided that I would go to Boston University and be taught by the same professors who taught him.”

Carter met King again when he was a student at Boston University, which he said pleased King. He recalls the heartbreak of hearing of King’s death.

“With tears streaming down my face I prayed out loud for the Lord to let me do something significant for Martin Luther King Jr., before I close my eyes,” Carter said. “[Former Morehouse President] Hugh Gloster invited me to be dean of Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on July 1. 1979.”

How King influenced him: “Dr. King helped me prepare my vision for my ministry and for all of my peace work. Martin Luther King Jr. is a moral cosmopolitan. His most famous statement is proof of that — ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’

“He did not believe in putting a straightjacket around his expression of unconditional love of Christ. There was an internal consistency about what he believed and sought. That is how he impacted me. (Having not attended Morehouse as an undergraduate) King would say to me that what I am doing is a much more powerful response to his recruitment. He did not realize he was anointing me to keep his message alive. I have kept his Kingian, non-violent philosophy alive in the academy. I have been here for 33 years. I have spoken in 37 countries about him. He would be proud.”