alumni spotlight:  Junious Ricardo Stanton (1969)

Junious Ricardo (Ricky, Rick) Stanton the only child of Junius Langley Stanton and Elsie Mae Stanton was born on February 18, 1948. Ricky’s father died when he was three years old but he was raised and nurtured in a loving extended family and community. He attended Philadelphia public schools, graduating from Germantown High School in June 1965. In the fall of ‘65 he matriculated to Cheyney State College enrolling in their Liberal Arts program. In December of 1966 he was initiated into the Gamma Omega Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. At Cheyney, Ricky was involved in numerous social activities including Student Government and The Black Student League. He graduated from Cheyney State College with a BA in English in 1969 and entered the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Fine Arts where he earned a Master’s Degree in City Planning in 1971.

After graduating from Penn, Junious worked for a few months as a substitute teacher, a security guard, milk delivery man and Assistant Recreation Leader before beginning a thirty-two year career as a Juvenile Probation Officer with the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania.

In 1972 he affiliated with the Philadelphia Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and became a life member of Grand Chapter in 1974. Over the years Rick has served on numerous committees and elected offices.

Outside of Kappa, Rick was active in the community as a basketball coach in Lawnside New Jersey for two years, as a certified high school and college basketball and soccer referee for almost twenty years, a volunteer instructor with the Pan African Community Education Program for six years, sixteen years on the Lawnside Planning Board, two three-year terms on the Lawnside Borough Council, an independent WHAT radio host for ten years.

In 2000 he became a pioneer in Internet talk radio by helping launch The Black World Today’s Internet radio talk channel. Junious has produced and hosted talk and music programs on five different Internet radio stations. He has been a magazine writer, a freelance writer and syndicated columnist for the National Newspaper Publishers Association with his writings being carried in over two hundred African-American newspapers. He also is an Internet blogger and an Internet TV producer.

He retired from the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania Court in 2004. He remains active in Kappa Alpha Psi. He also continues to volunteer as a member of the Grace Temple Baptist Church Community Development Corporation, President of the CASA of Camden County Board of Trustees, and as Vice President of the Cheyney University National Alumni Association a member of its Philadelphia Chapter and as a member of the “C’ club.

In 1970 he married Sonjia Elaine Harmon and they have an adopted son named Kefe.