Happy New Year!
Two Greek-letter organizations, Delta Tau Delta and Sigma Nu, have January 1 as their founding dates. Delta Tau Delta was founded in 1858 at Bethany College in Virginia, before there was a West Virginia (Today, Bethany is in West Virginia). The actual date of founding is unknown and that it perhaps why January 1 is used. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.
I just finished writing a history of the Gamma Mu chapter of Sigma Nu for the Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing (SPGH). As I was thumbing through The Delta of Sigma Nu magazines, I found the name of my husband’s grandfather listed among the Sigma Nu World War II casualties. His grandfather died more than a decade before Dan was born and Dan knew little about him other than he a graduate of Rose Polytechnic Institute (now Rose-Hulman) and a career Army man. Dan did not know that his grandfather was a Sigma Nu. Through Bob McCully, Sigma Nu’s Historian, we were able to learn that Dan’s grandfather was also active in alumni clubs and served as an adviser to the chapter at Emory University. It was a pleasant surprise to make that connection from a small paragraph in The Delta.
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Yesterday a wonderful actor passed away. Edward Herrmann, an initiate of the Phi Kappa Psi chapter at Bucknell University, died. With an aristocratic bearing, he portrayed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in two made for television movies, Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977). Both performances earned him Emmy Best Actor nominations. He also played FDR in the film, Annie. He recently gave voice to FDR in the Ken Burns series, The Roosevelts. While I enjoyed those performances, I adored his work in The Gilmore Girls. He portrayed family patriarch Richard Gilmore.
In 2000, Bucknell presented him with an Alumni Association Award for Achievement in a Chosen Profession. According to the Bucknell website:
Pursuing a degree in English, Ed Herrmann was a member of Cap and Dagger, Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi dramatic honor society, and vice president of the Student Association. After graduation, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship.
On Broadway, he won the Tony Award in 1976 for his performance in Mrs. Warren’s Profession. In 1983, he was awarded the Theater Guild Medal for his performance in Plenty. The scope of his work has extended far beyond the stage to motion pictures, radio, and television. In 1977, he received two Emmy nominations and won the Television Critics Circle Award for his portrayal of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin. In 1999, he won an Emmy for The Practice and the Audie Award for audio recording. He has worked extensively for The History Channel, A & E, and PBS.
At the same time, he has returned to campus many times to speak with students about careers in theater. He received an honorary doctor of humanities degree from the university in 1983, and gave the commencement address to the Class of 1989. He has been the director of the Bucknell Association for the Arts, appeared in a benefit performance for the Harvey Powers Theater, and narrated several videos for The Bucknell Campaign.
Edward Herrmann (Photo courtesy of Bucknell University)
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I’d love to have some guest blogs, so if you have a topic you’d like to write about, or if you have a historical article you can recycle, please let me know.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
