Byron Kenneth Armstrong

Byron Kenneth Armstrong was a scholar, imaginative and outspoken. Affectionately known as 'Boomski,' he was born on April 8, 1892, and was one of five children and the cousin of 2nd Grand Polemarch Irven Armstrong. Armstrong enrolled at Howard University in 1909, met Elder W. Diggs, and together they transferred to Indiana University in the fall of 1910, where he studied philosophy, mathematics, and sociology. He graduated from Indiana University with an A.B. degree in 1913, earned an M.A. from Columbia University in 1914, and was decreed a Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Michigan in 1940. He held teaching positions at universities in Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, and Michigan, and served as Dean in Maryland and Oklahoma. Armstrong was instrumental in persuading Diggs to enroll at Indiana University, a decision that ultimately led to the founding of the fraternity. He assisted in designing the fraternity's Coat of Arms and was one of two Founders who pawned his watch to pay for the Fraternity's incorporation fee. His cousin Irven Armstrong later served as the 2nd Grand Polemarch of Kappa Alpha Psi.