Henry Arthur Callis

Henry Arthur Callis (January 14, 1887 – November 12, 1974) was one of the seven founders (commonly referred to as The Seven Jewels) of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell University in 1906. Callis co-authored the Fraternity name with Eugene Jones and became the only Jewel to become General President of the fraternity. Callis assisted in the organizations of several chapters, including Theta Chapter (1910) in Chicago and later, Xi Lambda Chapter (1924), also in Chicago.

He became a physician and worked as a medical consultant at the Veterans' Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama. He was Professor of Medicine at Howard University and a frequent contributor to medical journals. He became the second husband of the poet Alice Dunbar, but their marriage ended in divorce.

Alpha Phi Alpha's Eta Tau Lambda chapter created Alpha Phi Alpha Homes Inc. to address housing for low-income families, individuals and senior citizens in Akron, Ohio. In 1971, Alpha Homes received an $11.5 million grant from HUD to begin groundbreaking on Channelwood Village with the Henry Arthur Callis Tower as its centerpiece.

Callis' death in 1974 was a milestone for the fraternity as Callis became the last Jewel to enter its Omega Chapter—distinguished to contain the names of deceased fraternity members, and the Alpha Phi Alpha entered a period when it had no living "Jewels". The Callis Papers - personal and family papers of Henry Callis including awards, certificates, clippings, correspondence, a diary, notebooks, photographs, programs and scrapbooks relating to Callis and his family - were donated to Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.