ALPHA ATHLETES - The Sphinx Magazine

FRATERNITY’S FIRST CAUCASIAN
BROTHER LEAVES LEGACY AFTER
FOUR-DECADE CAREER AT USC
Brother Bernard Levin, a prosthodontics pioneer who taught
at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry
for more than 40 years and who was the first Caucasian
Brother inducted into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, entered Omega
Chapter on May 28, 2008. He was age 84.
Brother Levin was a 1947 graduate of the University of Illinois
School of Dentistry and practiced in Chicago and Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Interested in specializing, he went to the USC School
of Dentistry in 1962 to enroll in Frank Lott’s two-year program in
prosthodontics.
Following graduation, he returned to his practice in New
Mexico but his stay there was brief. In early 1966, he received an
unexpected call from the dean at USC, stating that Frank Lott was
preparing to retire and inquiring if Brother Levin would be interested
in returning to USC to teach. Brother Levin said, “Yes,” and fol-
lowed in his mentor’s footsteps
as chair of Removable
Prosthodontics, which took
him through a remarkable
four-decade educational
journey that helped shape
the lives and professional
careers of countless students
and faculty.
As a member of the faculty,
Brother Levin thrived
on helping develop and
improve techniques for dentures
and other dental prosthetics.
He published three books, four teaching manuals and more
than 50 articles. He won numerous teaching awards. In 1997, the
restorative dentistry faculty created the Bernard Levin Removable
Prosthodontics Award in his honor. The award is given to a senior
who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in partial and
complete removable prosthodontics. He retired from full-time
teaching in 1997 but stayed on part time through 2007.
Brother Levin was a 22-year-old Chicagoan studying dentistry
at the University of Illinois when he was initiated into Alpha Phi
Alpha Fraternity through Theta Chapter in 1946. The history-making
initiation marked the first time that a white member was initiated
into any of America’s black Greek-letter organizations.
However, the initiation of Brother Levin into Alpha Phi Alpha
was no smooth procedure. First a change in the national
Constitution had to be made. This was accomplished at the
Fraternity’s National Convention held the prior December in
Chicago when delegates voted to remove the word “Negro” from
the clause defining eligibility. Prior to his initiation, Brother Levin
had done wide reading on the racial problem in America and had
formed strong convictions. He believed the racial problem could
only be solved through a “close association between white people
and Negro people, particularly on the social plane.”
Brother Levin is survived by his wife Kinuyo Levin, two children
and two grandchildren.
The Sphinx: www.APA1906.net Fall • Winter 2008
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