Alumni and Friends Making an Impact

Keith ’78 and Paula ’81 Cosby found each other through UD.

It wasn’t on campus, though, but 500 miles away in Atlanta on a train platform after a baseball game. Three months after reuniting with each other, they were engaged to be married.

“Several things had to line up — and that’s why we say God was in all of this — several things had to line up for our meeting to happen,” Keith said.

Keith was in town attending a conference with his mentors and former UD professors, John Schleppi and the late Don Morefield. The three decided to take in a baseball game at Fulton County Stadium, not knowing Paula was also there with a mutual friend, Frederick Brownlee ’80, and a young girl she was mentoring.

Their run-in captured their relationship with UD perfectly — they were surrounded by their community, the people who pushed and uplifted them.

“The sense of community that UD builds while you’re attending is undoubtedly one of its greatest assets,” Paula said. “You don’t just make friends for the period of time you’re there, but for a lifetime.”

After 40 years as alumni and 37 as husband and wife, the Cosbys still communicate almost daily with their friends from UD; Keith with his Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brothers and Paula with her core of Alpha Kappa Alpha friendships, who have become like family.

When Keith’s mom passed away in 1986, two of his fraternity brothers showed up in New Jersey for her funeral.

“They didn’t tell me they would be there,” Keith said. “They just showed up; that’s the kind of relationship that was fostered at UD.”

Those weren’t the only relationships nourished at UD for Keith and Paula. They also experienced the profound impact mentors can have on a career and trajectory.

For Keith, he was unsure of his path before attending UD. His first semester included a physical education class for incoming freshmen with Morefield, who took Keith under his wing.

Morefield was running the National Youth Sports Program, a summer camp for disadvantaged youth that ran for nearly four decades at UD. He encouraged Keith to take it over in addition to presenting at local, state and national conferences for physical education.

“That was the relationship I had with him,” said Keith, who would go on to work for 30 years as a physical education teacher. “Just mentoring me through my years at UD and even after.”

For Paula, it was the “Learn. Lead. Serve.” motto that became a guiding principle. Through experiences of volunteering and community service projects, she developed her passion for empowering people of the community. So much so that it ignited a lifelong career in the nonprofit arena.

These relationships and the UD community left a mark on the Cosbys.

“I think the whole service piece has always been in our DNA, but going through UD really helped us develop it and find ways to nurture our gifts,” Paula said.

Keith stays involved with UD through Kappa Alpha Psi, one of the seven Divine Nine fraternities and sororities at UD, connecting with and mentoring students and young alumni. He’s also involved with Reunion Weekend planning and the Black Alumni Association in addition to coaching and volunteering in the area. Paula stays active through Alpha Kappa Alpha, another one of the Divine Nine, with community service and mentorship, and in the larger community with a nonprofit career spanning more than 30 years.

Two of their three children, Lauren Cosby ’11 and Lindsay Cosby ’13, also found homes at the University of Dayton.

“When I came to UD in ’74, we were one of the largest African American classes to come in at that time, I think,” Keith said. “From there, I always had great experiences at UD through mentorships, through our professors and seeing them pour into us and expect us to go out and pour into others. That has always been instilled in everyone I’ve worked with and mentored through UD.

“It’s always continued and I look back at that and I say, ‘Yeah, Mr. Morefield would expect me to do this, this is what I was trained to do.’”