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Charleston native serves as president of Lincoln University’s foundation
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Charleston, Missouri, native is serving as the president of Lincoln University’s nonprofit foundation.
Alfred Harris of Memphis was recently elected to a two-year term as president of “The 62nd & 65th Regiments Legacy Foundation Inc.” headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Established in 1970, the Foundation is a certified not-for-profit entity, almost singularly focused toward providing financial assistance to students at Lincoln University. In the current semester alone, the Foundation awarded about $300,000 to 95 students and hopes to increase the number of awards in Spring 2023, according to Harris.
A 1965 graduate of Charleston High School and an alumnus of Lincoln University’s class 1969, Harris has served on the Foundation Board since 2012. His journey from the segregated class rooms of the Lincoln Elementary/High School in Charleston to the Foundation Board room in Jefferson City is varied and interesting at the very least.
After nearly being killed in a school-yard fight at age 13, Harris said he left home to attend Lincoln four years later, he said. As a self-supported student, his freshman year was a financial struggle, but things began to improve thereafter, Harris said.
Active and popular on campus, Harris said he was a rising star in the Military Science Department and won a two-year ROTC scholarship. He was elected junior class president for 1967-1968 and then Student Government president the following year. Finishing Lincoln as a distinguished military graduate, he served a 20-year career as an Army Intelligence officer before undertaking several abbreviated careers. Notably, they included being a prison warden in Shelby County, Tennessee; regional trainer in the casino industry in Mississippi; and program manager for the U.S. Navy Equal Opportunity Advisor Program.
Answering a spiritual call to service, Harris said he retired in 2010 and committed his life to volunteerism. In what Harris described as his strong affinity for Lincoln, he served as president of the Lincoln University National Alumni Association for four-and-a-half years. Currently, he is active with his church, the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. and Veterans of Foreign Wars, where he serves as National Aide-de-Camp.
Harris is also the younger brother of the late Sgt. George W.C. Harris, Missouri State Highway Patrol, who lived in Sikeston, Missouri, and served the Bootheel community until his passing in 1997.