The Dick Clark Communications Library built in Delta Kappa Epsilon, as part of the late television personality’s $1 million donation to his college fraternity, will be unveiled this Saturday.

The library will be officially unveiled at a dedication at noon, where Kari and Cindy Clark, Clark’s wife and daughter, respectively, will be in attendance, according to a DKE press release. Dick Clark, who died of a heart attack last April, was a member of the Syracuse University chapter of the fraternity from 1947-1951 and was president during his senior year.

DKE’s Executive Board decided to create the library, said Kim O’Casey, president of NYC Publicist and an SU alumna who helped with the project. The library took three months to plan and was designed by Jodi Howe, wife of DKE alumnus Ken Howe, she said. Howe will work up until the library’s unveiling on Saturday and will place the “last piece of furniture” this week, O’Casey said.

Last March, TMZ.com speculated that the donation would go toward funding future parties, O’Casey said. The alumni association plans to use the money solely for educational, scholarship purposes, she said. O’Casey said the alumni chose to create the library as a resource that would benefit both current and future brothers.

The library, located on the main floor of the house, will be outfitted with new computers, tables, chairs and academic publications that the brothers can use, O’Casey said. It will also display a quote by Clark that says, “If you fall down, get up and walk again. If you can’t walk, crawl. If that idea fails, have another one.”

“The quote really speaks to his legacy,” she said. “These gentlemen will be learning what is up and coming in their own professions while being surrounded by Dick Clark’s message.”

O’Casey said Clark was remembered as being a “focused gentleman” and a “great communicator” who thought very highly of his professors. Clark would walk into the house, take over the TV and study broadcasting techniques for hours, she said.

“He reached far beyond the usual norms of a student,” she said. “He had very defined goals and went beyond that by using the tools that DKE, Newhouse and SU offered him.”

The room was once the “pool room,” where house residents would relax, she said. The pool table has been moved out, O’Casey said, but old relics that represent the house’s history will still remain in the library, such as books from when it was originally a library, including DKE literature.

Built in 1905, the house was formerly owned by the Horace Wilkinson family until Clark helped purchase the $886,000 mansion in 1991. It still maintains much of the original, historical flavor such as a fireplace, stained glass, marble and L. & J.G. Stickley furniture. The company still operates out of Manlius, N.Y., and “speaks to the history of Syracuse,” O’Casey said.

“The library still maintains a lot of its original character, it’s almost like having ghosts in there to speak to the history of what the alumni really stood for,” O’Casey said. “It blends the past and modern principles of what DKE stands for.”

The library will also carry out the alumni’s updated version of what a DKE brother should be, she said. Alumni want to return to the tradition of the fraternity, which was based on education, grooming the brothers and contributing to the community, O’Casey said. By using the tools the money can give them, she said the house will continue to be a place for the brothers to study and experience camaraderie.

Carmen Davoli, alumni president of SU’s DKE chapter, described Clark as an “institution,” adding that that library will teach current and future brothers how to embody SU, DKE and Clark’s legacy.

Davoli had the opportunity to meet with Clark before he died and reminisce about DKE’s traditions and the fraternity’s lifelong influence.

“Dick Clark really embodied the spirit and history of great institutions like DKE and SU,” he said. “This library can inspire today’s DKE brother and future DKE brother to not just embody those things but also the great institution that Dick Clark was.”

Published on October 30, 2013 at 12:43 am

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu