Theologian and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Grand Sire Archon Calvin O. Pressley was born Calvin Oliver Pressley on November 10, 1937, in Harlem, New York. He was the third of six children born to Washington Pressley, a railroad worker, and Pansy Pressley, a schoolteacher from Kingstree, South Carolina. His siblings included George, Alex, Raymond, Francine, and Lois Pressley.
Pressleyโs early education began at Mt. Calvary Nursery School in Harlem. While he was a teenager, the Pressley family returned to South Carolina, where he graduated from Tomlinson High School, Kingstree, in 1954. Pressley received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1959. Afterward, he earned a Master of Divinity from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, in 1962. After graduation and ordination, Pressley returned to New York City and began his career as a Youth Minister at the Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church on Madison Avenue and 126th Street. He later served as the senior pastor at the Church of The Open Door in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1967, Rev. Pressley began serving as executive director of the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) of New York, a post he held for ten years. Beginning in 1978, he served as Executive Director of the Mission Society (NYCMS), a post he held until 1991. Pressley then served as Executive Director of the New York City Society of the United Methodist Church.
In 1978 Rev. Pressley was inducted into Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, also known as The Boulรฉ. He joined Beta Zeta boulรฉ (chapter) in Westchester, New York. From 1991 to 1997, Pressley was the assistant to Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Grand Grammateus, Harvey C. Russell, and the following year, in 1998, he was appointed by the Grand Executive Committee to complete Russell’s term and assume his duties after his death.
In 2004, Pressley became the Grand Sire Archon (national president) of the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity and served in that post until 2004. Under his leadership the Fraternity addressed significant issues confronting African American males, such as health and disproportionate incarceration.
Reverend Calvin Oliver Pressley was married to Iona Pressley, a graduate of the Fashion Institute in New York City. The couple had one son, Todd O. Pressley who eventually joined Beta Boulรฉ of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. Rev. Pressley, by that point a member of the Kappa Boulรฉ in the Boston area, died on September 21, 2007, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 69 years old.
