Inducted on July 27, 2019
Brother Charles Richardson was a January 5, 1883 initiate of the Omikron Chapter at Emory and Henry College. Brother Richardson had the good fortune as a student at Emory and Henry to receive the tutelage of Brother Stephen Alonzo Jackson who was a mentor to the chapter throughout his Kappa Sigma career and Kappa Sigma life and who served as a role model to the brothers of the Omikron Chapter. Brother Jackson encouraged all members of the Omikron Chapter to go and found chapters of Kappa Sigma Fraternity upon their graduation from Emory and Henry College. Brother Richardson accepted that directive and after graduating from the Vanderbilt University Dental School he settled and established his profession in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Brother Richardson opened his dental practice in Fayetteville and immediately began the process of founding a chapter of Kappa Sigma at the University of Arkansas. The Xi Chapter was founded in Fayetteville on May 29, 1890, and has become known in our fraternity as “Fabulous Xi” Chapter and currently stands as the chapter having the largest membership of all chapters of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Brother Richardson worked day and night in building the presence of the Xi Chapter at the University of Arkansas. Brother Richardson also served as a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity’s Supreme Executive Committee in the office of Worthy Grand Procurator from 1898 until 1906. In 1895, he was approached by four women who were students at the University of Arkansas who sought his assistance in establishing a women’s college fraternity. Brother Richardson, now lovingly referred to as “SisDoc,” worked with those four women to establish the Chi Omega Women’s Fraternity on April 5, 1895.
The Kappa Sigma Fraternity over the years has had a very proud association with our interfraternal friends of Chi Omega, which is currently the largest women’s fraternity in North America. Brother Richardson learned quite well from the charge that was placed before him by Brother Jackson, and his legacy very proudly lives on at Fayetteville, Arkansas in the Xi Chapter of Kappa Sigma Fraternity and in the Chi Omega Women’s Fraternity throughout North America.