Are you following the page “This Day in Deke History” on Facebook? You should be. Here’s a look back at some of Kenyon’s remarkable DKEs.

John Grant Mitchell (November 6, 1838 – November 7, 1894) was an Ohio lawyer and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Brother Mitchell was active in several important campaigns and battles in the Western Theater, including the Chickamauga, Atlanta, and Franklin-Nashville and Carolinas campaigns. He commanded a brigade of veteran infantry in many of these operations. 

William J. Bland was killed instantly in 1918 by artillery fire near Euvezin, France. Major Bland commanded the First Battalion of the 356th Division. Brother Bland was the first graduate of Kenyon College to be the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship and, while at Oxford, Brother Bland became the first American to be elected President of the Oxford Union Debating Society. An American Legion Post in Kansas City is named in honor of Brother Bland and a memorial to him was elected there.  

Don McNeill became the first student-athlete from Kenyon to win a national title in 1940. While at Kenyon, Brother McNeill went undefeated in three years of Ohio Athletic Conference competition. in 1939, he became only the second American to win the French Open. He returned home with the French Open doubles title that same year. He later went on to win the 1944 U.S. Nationals doubles title and took the U.S. National Indoor Championship in both 1938 and 1950. Brother McNeill was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame, and the Kenyon Athletics Hall of Fame. 

Otis Harlan died at age 74 in 1940 after a long career on the Broadway stage and in movies. In 1937, Brother Harlan voiced “Happy” the Dwarf in the Disney classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs;” he also voiced Mr. Mole in the classic film “Bambi.” 

Daniel McCoy Braddock, the acting chargé d’affaires to Cuba, was responsible for operations of the Embassy in Havana when the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961. This was published in the May 1971 “Deke Quarterly”: “After the evacuation, Brother Braddock and eight subordinate American officials calmly ignored possible physical dangers to themselves and remained at the Embassy to help in the departure from Cuba of American citizens not connected with the Embassy and oversee the shipping of files and other U.S. Government property. The transfer of all U.S. diplomatic and consular business in Cuba to the Swiss Embassy in Havana was arranged by Brother Braddock.” 

Chip Sansom first began assisting his father Art Sansom on the newspaper comic strip he created called “The Born Loser” in 1977. Brother Sansom then took over running the business altogether after Art’s passing in 1991. The comic strip is distributed by United Features Syndicate and won the 1987 National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award and the 1990 Newspaper Comic Strip Award. 

Joseph “Joe” Hagin was appointed by President George W. Bush as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff on January 1, 2001. Brother Hagin served in that capacity until July 20, 2008. He also served in the same role for President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018. In April 2009, Brother Hagin co-founded Command Consulting Group which is an international security and intelligence consulting firm, headquartered in Washington, D.C. While at the White House, Brother Hagin picked up the Dubya nickname “Big Joe.” 

Judson St. John passed at age 83 in 2009. Brother St. John was the President of Ayerst Laboratories, later Wyeth-Ayerst (1983-1989). Brother St. John previously served as Vice President of Operations (1971-1976), Executive Vice President (1977-1982), and President (1983-1986). On the merger of the two companies, annual sales amounted to roughly $2.5 billion. 

Jonathan Winters died at age 87 in 2013. Winters was a giant of American comedy. On television, he was Mearth to Mork played by Robin Williams. In movies, he starred in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.” His final feature film was “The Smurfs 2,” which was dedicated to his memory. Winters attended Kenyon College only briefly and left pursue his interest in drawing and cartooning at the Dayton Art Institute. In 1999, Winters was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2008, he was presented with a Pioneer TV Land Award by Robin Williams.