From collection Member List
Education: Brother Cousins was a member of the Demosthenian Society literary society. He also served as a member of the first Board of Editors of The Pandora yearbook in 1886. Cousins was a member of the early Kappa Deuteron Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, in its second iteration, initiated in October of 1885; he served as an officer of the Chapter in 1884 or 1885. The Phi Gamma Delta Quarterly, April 1886, p. 135: “Brother Cousins has been elected a commencement champion debater from the Demosthenian Society, fully evincing his merit and popularity.” He graduated in 1886 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
His father was Isaac William Cousins. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Bennett, who was a sister of Rachel Loieduski “Loie” Bennett who married William Thomas Waters, and Mrs. Waters was the mother of Kappa Deuteron Brother Glen Waters. Therefore, William Richard Camelious Cousins and Glen Waters were first cousins as well as Brothers in Phi Gamm Delta.
Career: According to “The History of the University of Georgia,” by Thomas Walter Reed; Chapter IX: The Administration of Chancellor Patrick H. Mell, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, ca. 1949, p. 1201 of the original typed manuscript: “William Cousins (was) for many years a well-known member of the Atlanta bar.” According to his obituary in The Atlanta Constitution, he “opened offices in the old Law Building here in 1892 and continued his law practice until he retired” in the 1930s.
For a time, he served as an aide to Georgia Gov. William Yates Atkinson (UGA 1877), who was governor for two terms from 1894-1898, whom he may have met through The University of Georgia or the legal “fraternity” or through Meriwether County circles; Gov. Atkinson was a fellow graduate of Georgia, an attorney and a native of Meriwether. Gov. Atkinson later appointed fellow Phi Gam and for Kappa Deuteron Chapter Founder and first Chapter President, Robert L. Berner, to the post of Lieutenant Colonel of the 3rd Georgia Regiment during the Spanish-American War.
Gov. Atkinson’s wife, Susan Cobb Milton, who was kin of the Cobb family of Athens, was related to several Kappa Deuteron Brothers. Sarah Cobb Moore, for example, was the mother of Benning Moore Kennon and grandmother of William Augustus Kennon. Mrs. Atkinson was also kin to the Lamar family that produced Brother Lavoisier Ledran Lamar and the Moore family, into which William Moore Crane married.
A brother of Cousins, Rufus Clifford “Pete” Cousins, was the great-grandfather of Thomas Grady “Tom” Cousins (UGA 1952,) a prominent Atlanta builder, owner of the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Flames and the Atlanta Chiefs and developer of the CNN Center, 191 Peachtree, the original Georgia World Congress building and the Omni arena, which stood until it was torn down for Philips Arena. In 2006, Tom Cousins was named one of the “Greatest Atlantans of the Past 45 Years,” by Atlanta magazine.
In 1927, Brother Cousins and his wife were living at 5 Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta. By 1940, he was living on Lake Bennett Road in Fayetteville, Fayette County, Georgia. According to the City Directory for Atlanta, Georgia in 1951, he and his wife were living at 1929 Boulevard S.E. in Atlanta, near where the U.S. Federal Penitentiary is now located.
His father was Isaac William Cousins. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Bennett, who was a sister of Rachel Loieduski “Loie” Bennett who married William Thomas Waters, and Mrs. Waters was the mother of Kappa Deuteron Brother Glen Waters. Therefore, William Richard Camelious Cousins and Glen Waters were first cousins as well as Brothers in Phi Gamm Delta.
Career: According to “The History of the University of Georgia,” by Thomas Walter Reed; Chapter IX: The Administration of Chancellor Patrick H. Mell, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, ca. 1949, p. 1201 of the original typed manuscript: “William Cousins (was) for many years a well-known member of the Atlanta bar.” According to his obituary in The Atlanta Constitution, he “opened offices in the old Law Building here in 1892 and continued his law practice until he retired” in the 1930s.
For a time, he served as an aide to Georgia Gov. William Yates Atkinson (UGA 1877), who was governor for two terms from 1894-1898, whom he may have met through The University of Georgia or the legal “fraternity” or through Meriwether County circles; Gov. Atkinson was a fellow graduate of Georgia, an attorney and a native of Meriwether. Gov. Atkinson later appointed fellow Phi Gam and for Kappa Deuteron Chapter Founder and first Chapter President, Robert L. Berner, to the post of Lieutenant Colonel of the 3rd Georgia Regiment during the Spanish-American War.
Gov. Atkinson’s wife, Susan Cobb Milton, who was kin of the Cobb family of Athens, was related to several Kappa Deuteron Brothers. Sarah Cobb Moore, for example, was the mother of Benning Moore Kennon and grandmother of William Augustus Kennon. Mrs. Atkinson was also kin to the Lamar family that produced Brother Lavoisier Ledran Lamar and the Moore family, into which William Moore Crane married.
A brother of Cousins, Rufus Clifford “Pete” Cousins, was the great-grandfather of Thomas Grady “Tom” Cousins (UGA 1952,) a prominent Atlanta builder, owner of the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Flames and the Atlanta Chiefs and developer of the CNN Center, 191 Peachtree, the original Georgia World Congress building and the Omni arena, which stood until it was torn down for Philips Arena. In 2006, Tom Cousins was named one of the “Greatest Atlantans of the Past 45 Years,” by Atlanta magazine.
In 1927, Brother Cousins and his wife were living at 5 Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta. By 1940, he was living on Lake Bennett Road in Fayetteville, Fayette County, Georgia. According to the City Directory for Atlanta, Georgia in 1951, he and his wife were living at 1929 Boulevard S.E. in Atlanta, near where the U.S. Federal Penitentiary is now located.
