September 28, 2021

Dear Alumni, 

Your Kemper Military School & College Alumni Association (KMSAA) has been hard at work building out the Museum and bringing it online for its grand opening this Friday, October 1, 2021. Additionally, as I type this report it feels a little surreal that this weekend has finally arrived and that all Kemper “Old Boys” will finally get to see what has been in development since early 2019.  As a reminder, it states in the KMSAA Bylaws, Article II, purpose 2., “To assure the legacy of Kemper lives on by building a museum”.  As you all recall this project had massive headwinds and it started right after the blank space was presented to the alumni in October of 2019.  In 2020 the pandemic hit, the entire world came to a halt and all production on the Museum stopped until late November of that year.  If that was not enough, and after gaining lots of momentum, there was a fire two doors down and all the archives had to be removed and the building remediated from the fire. This process took at least 4-5 months to complete as finding contractors in these times has been difficult.  I feel it is important to mention because the amount of work and the number of times the archives have been handled and moved is remarkable.  It has been a privilege to lead this TEAM through all the highs and lows and watch the KMS Museum pop out on the other side a better and stronger representation of the rich history we have all come to enjoy and expect.  Thank you to all who served and made this mission possible. 

In addition to the grand opening, your Board of Directors had their Board meeting on September 19th and approved the suggested Directors and Officers for two-year terms which are as follows: 

Election of Directors  

Officers 

President: James Hallam  

Vice President: Laura Gramlich 

Secretary/Treasurer: Mike Melhalf 

 Directors 

Johnny Kartsonis 

Mike Stepto

1844 Society Director

Mike Stepto  

Please help me congratulate the above positions as I know they will represent your Alumni Association with honor and duty. 

It is also important to recognize two Directors who are rolling off the board and who have served with distinction, Mr. Tim Casey and Mr. Jack Ryan.  It has been an honor and a privilege to serve alongside both of you and the Association wishes you the best. We know this is not goodbye, but merely thank you and we will see you soon!   

In summary, I want to personally welcome each and every one of you this weekend as we have a very special program for you all.  Be safe in your travels and look forward to enjoying the weekend with everyone! 

Go Team!  

James 

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August 26, 2021

Dear Alumni,

Our fourth Kemper Museum work weekend is in the books and was another amazing success. The Museum is taking shape, and the organizing of our files and artifacts is in process. Our display cabinets are in and cleaned up, and the lighting in the front display cabinets has been installed. The bar was partially installed and the woodwork for the stairs, mezzanine and third floor railing has been completed. The third floor is now the official archives area where we divided all our history among ten tables in 15-year intervals for sorting.

I would like to recognize our amazing team and give thanks for all their hard work: Laura and Jody Gramlich, Brandy Waller, Johnny Kartsonis, Mike Stepto and James Hallam. A special THANK YOU to JOEY RHOER for the beautiful tuck-pointing work inside the museum. We would also like to recognize Missouri Military Academy (MMA) Brothers; Charles Schafer, Jason Falbo and Robert Silbough, who came over to help plan our grand opening on Oct 1st and for supporting the Museum and all Kemper Alumni.

As a reminder, MMA parents’ weekend is September 17-19th and Kemper will have a table and golf foursome. More details coming soon.

All Kemper Alumni make sure to mark your calendars for October 1-3rd for our KMS Old Boy Weekend. We are so excited to see everyone on October 1st from 4-6 p.m. at the special ribbon cutting ceremony for the museum!

I appreciate all the efforts and there has never been a better time to get involved with Kemper than right now.

Sincerely,

James Hallam

August 10, 2021

All Kemper Military School and College Alumni

RE:  Missouri Military Academy Homecoming September 17-19, 2021

Calling all Yellow Jackets,

It gives me great pleasure to present an official invitation to the Missouri Military Academy Homecoming next month at the school. Last Friday, Jason Falbo (MMA Alumni Association President) came to visit our museum and extended an invitation to all Kemper Military School and College Alumni. The festivities kick off on Friday, September 17th with open registration from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  Please see a few of the exciting events below:

• Friday: At 9:00 a.m., there will be a fund-raising golf tournament, that is always a great time, followed by a nice dinner on campus that evening. We also have a virtual golf tournament that is available for those that will not be able to make it out. Online registration for the golf tournament can be found here.
• Saturday:  All regularly scheduled events prior to the pandemic.
• Sunday:  Farewell breakfast in the mess hall, followed by a Vespers service in the Cadet Chapple. There is also an option to attend the Cardinals vs. Padres game in St. Louis with a bus from campus to the stadium and back.

You may view the full weekends schedule here.

For all interested parties, please reach out to me or Laura and we hope to see some “Old Boys” in the mix!

Best,

James

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Dear Alumni,

It gives me great pleasure to report the third KMS Museum work weekend has concluded. Your Kemper Museum is coming along in a BIG WAY! The weekend started out with verifying the installation of three new windows, all wood floors, a new AC unit and duct work. All repairs from the fire are complete and we are very glad to have that in our rear view mirror. Next, we met with our contractor to build the bar, reinforce the railing and bring it up to code. All work flow should be complete for our grand opening in October for the Reunion!

The weekend was spent bringing over larger archives, pictures, administrative documents and old paperwork from storage. Furniture was cleaned up as well as book cases sanded and stained. The third floor is now our Museum triage, where all items are arranged chronologically, and then by category. There is a ton of stuff to go through and this will take quite a while to get things organized into a presentation format. To this end, there is a lot of storage and documentation items needed so we created an KMS Museum Items wish list!

Check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/wedding/kms-museum-james-hallam-president--december-2025/registry/1IPYEX1XTTPL5

Bringing this Museum to life cannot be done without the hard work of your board of directors as well as our loyal volunteers. It is important that all volunteers are recognized for all their hard work:

Laura and Jody Gramlich, Johnny Kartsonis, Bisham and Dash Perti, Brandy Waller, Mike Stepto and James Hallam

The KMS Alumni Association is in full swing and we need everyone’s help with this project. Please mark your calendar for our next work weekend August 6-8, 2021. You may also help by joining the 1844 Society at the following link: https://www.kmsmuseum.org/donate.

I appreciate all the efforts and there has never been a better time to get involved with Kemper than right now!

Sincerely,

James Hallam

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