Membership is not required to establish a Kentucky Colonel Branch or to be listed in the Kentucky Colonels Handbook
When you are commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel you automatically become a member of a distinguished class of individuals with "special rights, privileges, and responsibilities appertaining thereunto" through your entitlement in being recognized as "Honorable" by the Governor. It has been said that the "Kentucky Colonel Commission is the Commonwealth's Highest Honor," this alone stands as a class by itself.
Every commission as a Kentucky Colonel is more than a certificate on the wall. It is a public act by the Commonwealth of Kentucky that places you within a civic and cultural class of honorees—a community of individuals recognized for community service, leadership, and goodwill, whose identity exists independently of any private organization or charity.
This page invites commissioned Kentucky Colonels to embrace that broader Kentucky Colonel Class, to see themselves as part of an historic civic community, and to use their title in responsible and creative ways—including forming independent clubs, associations, and businesses—distinct from any particular nonprofit brand. Wikipedia
A: The Kentucky Colonel Class is the collective body of all persons who have been duly commissioned as Kentucky Colonels by the Governor of Kentucky under the Great Seal of the Commonwealth. Each commission is an act of public recognition, not a membership in a privately operated charity or corporate enterprise.
As a class, Kentucky Colonels:
Share a common title of honor conferred by gubernatorial commission (letters patent); Wikipedia
Come from many different professions, regions, beliefs, and organizations;
Are traditionally regarded as goodwill ambassadors of Kentucky culture, hospitality, and civic values. Wikipedia
You are part of this class by reason of your commission, not because of any dues, donations, or affiliation with a particular nonprofit entity.
A Kentucky Colonel Commission is issued as a formal letters patent, signed by the Governor and countersigned by the Secretary of State, in the name of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Wikipedia
That commission, a legal act:
Identifies you by name as a Kentucky Colonel;
Confers an honor with “special rights, privileges, and responsibilities" legally appertaining thereunto;
Is preserved as part of the public record and archival history of the Commonwealth.
Because the commission is a public act of state, your status as a Kentucky Colonel does not depend on:
Joining, annually donating to, or remaining in good standing with any particular organization;
Becoming active as a philanthropist or volunteer in Kentucky;
Purchasing any specific merchandise or insignia;
Accepting any private organization’s narrative backstory about the origin or meaning of the title.
As a member of the Kentucky Colonel Class, you retain important civic and expressive rights linked to your commission, subject to ordinary law and to avoiding confusion with existing trademarks and brands:
The right to identify yourself as a Kentucky Colonel and to use the honorific “Colonel” or “Col.” in appropriate civic, cultural, and professional contexts. Wikipedia
The right to associate with other colonels, to meet, organize, and correspond as Kentucky Colonels.
The right to engage in editorial, historical, educational, and literary uses of “Kentucky Colonel,” “Kentucky Colonels,” and “Kentucky Colonelcy” to describe the title, the class, and its history, without needing permission from any private organization.
Federal court records from 2021 have already acknowledged that Kentucky Colonels, as individuals, remain free to use these words generically and descriptively as an honorary title and for educational, expressive, historical, informational, journalistic, and other non-commercial purposes despite controversy alleged by private commercial and charitable interests. In 2004, a precedent was established regarding the use of the title by the famous Kentucky Colonels basketball team as their name and identity. See Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels v. Building Champions, LLC; District Court, W.D. Kentucky; 345 F. Supp. 2d 716.
Since 1880, Kentucky Colonels have formed independent clubs, fraternities, and associations to pursue fellowship, business opportunities, cultural projects, and civic initiatives.
As a Kentucky Colonel, you may:
Gather with other colonels to create a local club or council that reflects your shared interests and values;
Establish heritage, cultural, or educational associations that promote Kentucky history, arts, or community service;
Participate in or create nonprofit, for-profit, or civic initiatives that make constructive use of the Kentucky Colonel title and tradition.
These independent associations and organizations are part of the natural life of the Kentucky Colonel Class and do not need to be controlled, licensed, or approved by any single organization, so long as they are honest about who they are and do not misrepresent themselves as government agencies or as another group’s brand.
Many Kentucky Colonels have used their title as part of their public identity in business, the arts, and professional life. One of the most famous examples is Colonel Harland Sanders, who was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel and went on to build Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) into a global brand, using the “Colonel” persona as a symbol of hospitality and quality. Wikipedia
In that same spirit, a Kentucky Colonel today may:
Reference the title in biographies, business profiles, and public speaking;
Develop independent brands, services, or enterprises that reflect the values of Kentucky Colonelcy (goodwill, integrity, public service), while respecting existing trademarks and avoiding confusion with other entities;
Offer professional or creative work (books, lectures, consulting, arts, events) that draws on the heritage and symbolism of the Kentucky Colonel tradition.
Your commission gives you a lawful, factual identity you can present to the world. When using that identity in business, it is important to:
Be truthful and transparent about your own organization;
Clearly distinguish your work from any existing nonprofit or trademarked brand;
Follow ordinary trademark and unfair competition laws so that customers and the public are not misled about affiliation or endorsement.
While Colonel Sanders built a global brand on a real Kentucky Colonel commission, other companies have used “colonel” purely as an advertising device. For example, the “Colonel Morton” associated with Morton Frozen Foods was a fictional mascot created in the 1950s by company president George Egger and a New York advertising firm to evoke “Old Kentucky” recipes and Southern culinary tradition—there is no evidence that Harold Morton, George Egger, or the character ever held a Kentucky Colonel or military commission. In that sense, Colonel Sanders represents the business use of a genuine civic title, whereas “Colonel Morton” shows how marketers sometimes borrow the image of a Kentucky colonel without any underlying honor.
The Kentucky Colonel Class and any particular private brand or charity are not the same thing. Courts and historical sources recognize that:
“Kentucky Colonel” is widely understood as the name of the honorary commission granted by the Governor of Kentucky, and therefore describes a class of people before it describes any organization.
Private nonprofits and companies may build their own programs and trademarks that use the term in specific ways, but those private brands do not own the class, the title, or the history.
On this website, the words “Kentucky Colonel,” “Kentucky Colonels,” and “Kentucky Colonelcy” are used in their generic and descriptive sense to refer to:
The public title conferred by the Commonwealth;
The civic and cultural class of individuals who hold that title;
The many independent colonels, clubs, and projects that have grown from that tradition.
Private organizations—whether charitable or commercial—are part of the broader picture, but they do not limit your status or your rights as a Kentucky Colonel.
If you hold a commission as a Kentucky Colonel, you are part of a long-standing civic and cultural class that spans generations and continents. That class existed before any modern brand, and it will continue as long as the Commonwealth issues commissions to individuals whose work merits recognition. Wikipedia
This page invites you to:
Embrace your identity as a member of the Kentucky Colonel Class;
Connect with other colonels in ways that are independent, constructive, and lawful;
Consider how you can use your title—whether in community service, cultural projects, or business ventures—to contribute to the common good while honoring the history and dignity of the commission.
The Kentucky Colonel title belongs, first and foremost, to the individuals who hold it and to the Commonwealth that confers it. Within that framework, there is ample room for creativity, initiative, and leadership by Kentucky Colonels themselves, acting as a civic and cultural community in their own right.
A Kentucky Colonel who also holds a PhD in sociology shared the following reflection on how class identity helps make sense of the Kentucky Colonel Class. In sociology, “class identity” usually refers to belonging to a social or economic class (working, middle, upper), shaped by one’s position, interests, and shared experiences. The same ideas can be applied to a civic and cultural class such as Kentucky Colonels—a group defined not by income, but by a public honor and symbolic role.
According to this perspective, several factors shape class identity:
Position and interests: People understand themselves as part of a class when they see how their opportunities, autonomy, and life chances are linked to a shared position. For Kentucky Colonels, that position is the state-conferred commission, which sets them apart as a distinct civic class, regardless of any corporate membership or donor status.
Shared experiences: Work, education, community service, and the experience of being named a Kentucky Colonel create common stories and expectations. Over time, colonels develop a sense that “we” share a role in representing Kentucky’s hospitality, culture, and public spirit.
Culture and symbols: Tastes, values, narratives, and even clothing or ceremonial practices can reinforce class identity. The imagery of the Kentucky Colonel—stories, handbooks, lapel pins, gatherings—forms a small “culture” that signals belonging to this class of honorees.
Class identity has real effects. It influences daily life (how people think about their responsibilities and opportunities), politics (how they view public issues and social obligations), and self-perception (how they understand their own worth and potential). Some research suggests that many people today avoid explicit class labels, or feel uneasy about them, but other studies show that class identities still shape expectations and perceived opportunities in powerful ways.
Applied to Kentucky Colonelcy, this sociological view suggests that the Kentucky Colonel Class will matter as much as colonels themselves choose to make it matter. If Colonels see their title only through the lens of a single charity, brand, or fundraising system, the class identity remains narrow and dependent. If instead they understand themselves as members of a distinct civic and cultural class of honorees, with a shared history and shared responsibilities that exist independently of any one organization, then class identity becomes a source of dignity, initiative, and community for Kentucky Colonels worldwide.
