Gamma Pi "Giant in Omega" Enters Omega Chapter Suddenly; Leaves Behind a Sterling Legacy

UPDATE: Livestream link for the service on Friday, March 18 at approximately 12:15 pm:  

https://www.holyfamilychurch.com

Brothers in Gamma Pi Chapter and throughout Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. have spent the past 72 hours or so trying to process the jarring developments of Friday morning, February 25. Mid-morning, urgent emails went out like wildfire. Group chats of Omega men started receiving startling posts. Smartphones started ringing. Word was traveling faster than the speed of light: "Have you heard? Gordon Everett is dead." To hear those words, it was as if someone was speaking a foreign language. Throughout Gamma Pi Chapter and the entire Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Brothers are still trying to process the shocking news as it continues to reverberate into a new week. The Super Chapter has lost a Super Brother. The Second District has  lost a Super Brother. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. has lost a Super Brother. As one Brother put it, "A giant tree in Omega has fallen."

Bro. Gordon Everett, Sr.

Days later, the numbness about his sudden and untimely loss continues. It just does not seem real. Numerous Brothers had just seen and talked to Bro. Gordon Everett, Sr. the night before at the CIAA basketball tournament in Baltimore watching his beloved Winston-Salem State University Rams advance to the next round. The day before that, he had posted in a chat about available jobs young Black students could interview for on-site at the tournament. He was working feverishly to get all the interview spots filled and was asking for recommendations. Two chapter  members had spent hours with him just three weeks ago as part of a multimedia project. And then just last weekend, Brother Everett joined chapter members in the virtual monthly meeting on Saturday afternoon, February 19. He was his usual feisty -- and wise --self. Bro. Everett's Omega wisdom is like gold. Everybody wanted a nugget.

The suddenness with which he departed unexpectedly for Omega chapter -- and on the day before his birthday, no less -- contrasts with the many decades during which he has given many long hours of his life to serving Omega everywhere he has lived. He has been a mentor to many Brothers, and not just to newly inducted members. He is a former three-term Gamma Pi Basileus and former KRS and committee chairman for Gamma Pi, which is based in Prince George's County, Md.  Brother Everett worked at the District and International levels and ran for District office, including the top office of District representative. He most recently headed an initiative at the District level helping to enhance the code of conduct within the Fraternity. It's not a stretch at all to say that Bro. Everett knows Brothers in every district of the Fraternity. His Gamma Pi service was interrupted by a job relocation to Cincinnati from 2008-2010, where he was active with Beta Iota Chapter. After that, he returned to the DMV area and Gamma Pi. He considered The Super Chapter home.

Bro. Everett (2nd, right) with golf pro Jim Thorpe 

The consummate Omega man, Bro. Everett could delve into some of the deepest and most intellectually challenging thinking about Omega life as well as some of the most pressing  issues of the day and how they affected the Fraternity. On the other hand, he could hold his own and kick back dust when the talk turned to past-times like sports and music from "back in the day." For example, whether the "trash talk" was about his beloved WSSU Rams, or the NFL Philadelphia Eagles (he used to live and work in the area ... we can forgive him), he enjoyed giving it as good as he took it.

But when it came time to roll up the sleeves, Bro. Everett had an all-business persona that was unmatched. Whether decked out in a perfect-fitting suit, spiffy shoes and an unmistakably purple tie, or adorned in his Omega sweater, Bro. Everett could run a meeting with the skill and acumen of a Corporate CEO. He was very adept at keeping the business at hand front and center and staying on track. He never seemed to get flustered no matter how hot the heat "turned up" in the kitchen.  Leadership was written all over him. He could relate to and be comfortable among younger, newer members of the Fraternity half his age just as easily as he could be among the Brothers he had known for 30, 40 and almost 50 years of Omega life. Bro. Everett could relate to everyone and everyone could relate to him. His people skills were unique. In fact, his people and salesmanship skills were such that he sold out several tables every year for Gamma Pi Chapter's Mardi Gras fundraising formal.

Bro. Everett knew when to work and when to play. And he was good at both. Because of what he stood for and what and how he lived as an Omega man, he had hundreds of "followers" long before social media ever came into existence. It was easy to see why he also thrived in the professional world as a leader in the corporate sales arena and more recently as a federal government senior executive.

Multiple award winner for his contributions

Bro. Everett was also well-known and well-respected within the community of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in his role as a leading alumni and former national alumni president for Winston-Salem State University (Mu Epsilon '75) from 2011-2014. At a time when the role of these institutions is being questioned throughout society, Bro. Everett dedicated himself to demonstrating these schools' phenomenal intellectual output and real-world success not only to the African American community, but in all of American life. One way he did that was through helping young WSSU grads get internships, fellowships and other opportunities to showcase the knowledge that had been instilled in them at an HBCU, more specifically WSSU. 

Finally, his family was his crown jewel. Bro. Everett's family was everything to him. He never let an opportunity go by where he did not mention his wife, his son (who followed his footsteps into Omega Psi Phi) or his daughter in terms of what they were up to and where they were either going or just got back from. By the time you met members of his family you felt that you already knew them.

Yet another Second District road trip...

As all of Gamma Pi Chapter and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc, prepare to join and support his family in remembering him and honoring his legacy, one thought comes to mind. That is, being able to grieve someone's loss is a sign they have had a major impact on your life. Being able to grieve that person's loss is also a sign of privilege -- privilege to have known that person and to have had them in your life. If we did not have that privilege as his Omega Brothers, we would not be grieving Bro. Gordon Everett, Sr.

 Fraternity members throughout the country are realizing now just how much of a true privilege it was to know and be a Friend of Bro. Gordon Everett, Sr. He will always be missed, but always remembered. What a privilege we have all had in Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. to know Bro. Gordon Everett, Sr. Rest in the Arms and Peace of the Supreme Basileus, Bro. Everett...

Read more about a scholarship Bro. Everett and his wife Sharon recently endowed for Winston-Salem State University students.

From a District meeting several years ago

From 2011- Bro. Gordon Everett, Sr. positioned at The Escutcheon