On the 4th of July – Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse, ΦΔΘ, and Silent Cal, ΦΓΔ

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

July 4, 1939 was “Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day” at Yankee Stadium. On that day, baseball great Lou Gehrig, Phi Delta Theta, became the first major league baseball player to have his number retired. There are still people who were at Yankee Stadium that day, but those who would remember his words are in their 80s and 90s. Gehrig’s nickname, the Iron Horse, came from his prowess on the field. He played in 2130 consecutive games, a record which took decades to break.

In the last half of the 1938 season, things seemed a bit off for him. He collapsed at spring training in 1939, and at his wife’s urging he found himself at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After six days of testing, on his 36th birthday, June 19, he received the grim diagnosis. He had Amyotrophic Lateral  Sclerosis (ALS), a disease where motor function slowly fades away while the mind remains sharp. He died June 2, 1941. Today, ALS is better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Phi Delta Theta has a partnership with the ALS Association. Chapters raise funds for the Association and each chapter is encouraged to connect with the local ALS Association chapters to assist area residents suffering from the disease.

Lou_Gehrig_fundraiser247

Each year since 1955, the fraternity presents the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award to the MLB player who exemplifies Gehrig’s spirit and character. The plaque is located at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.

Seventy-five years ago today, in front of a packed house at Yankee Stadium, Gehrig gave his farewell speech. He did it without notes and spoke from the heart. You can see parts of his speech and all the MLB first-basemen reciting it with him. It’s at http://foxs.pt/1lCkcPG. If you prefer to read the words, here they are.

For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

When you look around, wouldn’t you it consider it a privilege to associate yourself with such as fine looking a man as is standing in uniform today.

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?

Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert; also the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow; to have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow Miller Huggins; then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology—the best manager in baseball today—Joe McCarthy! Sure I am lucky.

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift— that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies—that’s something.

When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter, that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it’s a blessing! When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that’s the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break; but I have an awful lot to live for!”

columbi

  ***

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., the 30th President of the United States, was born on July 4, 1872 in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts where he became a member of Phi Gamma Delta.

After graduation, while working as a lawyer in nearby Northampton, he met Grace Goodhue, a Pi Beta Phi who had recently graduated from the University of Vermont. She was working at the Clarke School for the Deaf. They married in the Goodhue family home in Burlington, Vermont. Although they spent their married life living in Massachusetts with a side trip to Washington, D.C. , Vermont seemed to be always in their hearts.

Festivities are planned for today, July 4, 2014 at the Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.

The postcard reads

The postcard reads “For Phi Gamma Delta With best wishes Calvin Coolidge”

To read more about President Coolidge’s life as a FIJI member, please visit this earlier post: http://wp.me/p20I1i-2L and http://wp.me/p20I1i-gf

© 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/

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Rest in Peace Louis Zamperini, Kappa Sigma, Olympian, and World War II Hero

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I have World War II on my mind. I have been researching the sorority women who enlisted during World War II, including Helen Marlowe, Zeta Tau Alpha at the University of Southern California, who is the subject of the previous post. This morning I read of Louus Zamperini’s death. I automatically wanted to know if he was a fraternity man.

Zamperini was born January 26, 1917, in upstate New York to Italian immigrants. In 1919, the family, which included an older brother, Pete, and  two younger sisters moved to California. At Torrance High School , Pete got Louis involved in the school track team. In 1934, Louis set a world interscholastic record for the mile – 04:21.2. He won a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he became a member of Kappa Sigma. Today’s post is courtesy of Kappa Sigma.

WWII Hero, Olympian and Kappa Sigma Golden Heart Recipient Zamperini Joins Chapter Celestial

From the Kappa Sigma Blog, July 3, 2014, , by Derald Dryman, used with permission

Brother Louis S. Zamperini (Delta-Eta, University of Southern California, ’46) joined the Chapter Celestial on Wednesday, July 2, 2014, at age 97.  While attending the University of Southern California, Brother Zamperini proudly represented the U.S. in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Prior to graduating, he went on to set a national collegiate record for the mile, which he held for 15 years. Following his graduation from USC, he planned on continuing his athletics and competing in the 1940 Olympic Games, where he was favored to win, but instead chose to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces to serve his country in World War II.

While on a reconnaissance mission, Brother Zamperini’s aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean where he and others spent 47 days adrift on an inflatable raft before being captured by the Japanese Navy when they reached the Marshall Islands. Brother Zamperini was a prisoner of war for more than two years, during which time he was beaten and tortured in prison camps. In 1998 Brother Zamperini returned to Japan to run a leg of the Olympic Torch relay at the Winter Olympics.

Kappa Sigma awarded the Golden Heart Award to Brother Zamperini at the 68th Grand Conclave in 2011 for courage and bravery throughout life. Brother Zamperini was the 15th recipient of the award and addressed the Brothers and guests in attendance.

Brother Zamperini was the inspiration for  Lauren Hillenbrand’s book, “Unbroken,” which has been adapted into a film and was directed by Angelina Jolie. The movie is set for release in the U.S. on December 25, 2014. Brother Zamperini was also set to be the Grand Marshall for the 2015 Rose Parade.

Brother Zamperini was a proud Kappa Sigma for 68 years, and Kappa Sigma was privileged to call him a Brother.

zamp 1939

To see other pictures, including one of him with his chapter during a 2013 visit, see the Kappa Sigma blog post http://kappasigma.org/wwii-hero-olympian-and-kappa-sigma-golden-heart-recipient-zamperini-joins-chapter-celestial/

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Happy Canada Day, My Canadian GLO Friends!

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

O Canada and the Star Spangled Banner are sung at the opening of each Pi Beta Phi convention. My educated guess is that it is sung at the start of the conventions of most other Greek-letter Organizations GLOs).

Many GLO conventions have taken place in Canada. The Bigwin Inn, Lake of Bays, Ontario was the site of many fraternity and sorority conventions: Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma in 1925; Phi Kappa Tau in 1927; Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Xi Delta, and Delta Zeta’s Silver Anniversary convention in 1928; and Sigma Phi Epsilon in 1930, to name a few.  Some of the other Canadian convention locations include: the Empress Hotel, Victoria, British Columbia; Lake Louise, Alberta; and Jasper Park, Alberta. Zeta Psi’s 2014 convention in August will take place in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

GLOs have been a part of Canadian higher education since 1879. Zeta Psi became the first fraternity in Canada when its chapter at the University of Toronto was chartered on March 27, 1879. Zeta Psi’s Grand Chapter met in 1877 and it was agreed that the fraternity should venture into Canada. The Xi Chapter at the University of Michigan was given the task of founding a chapter at the University of Toronto. It was a challenging task given what travel and communications were like in the 1870s, but the Michigan Zeta Psi’s were successful. The chapter designation, Theta Xi, honored the efforts of the Michigan chapter by incorporating the “Xi” into its name.

The chapter remained the sole fraternity on the University of Toronto campus until the 1890s when they were joined by Kappa Alpha Society, Alpha Delta Phi, Phi Kappa Sigma, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Upsilon, and Delta Chi. The first National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) women’s organization at the University of Toronto was Kappa Alpha Theta. According to Theta’s 1956 history, We Who Wear Kites,  “A letter from M.R Robertson of the University of Toronto explained that ‘one of the Zetas’ had given the seven girls of a local group ‘information about society matters and also your address.’ After favorable action by the Convention in 1887, Anna Louis Benham of Iota (Cornell University) was sent to Toronto to initiate the seven.”

The Sigma Chapter was chartered in 1887 giving Theta the distinction of being the first women’s fraternity in Canada. The faculty had a strong feeling against the Greek-letter organizations and the seven women who were initiated kept their membership a secret. By 1899, the chapter became dormant.  In 1905, Sigma Chapter was revived. It was was soon followed by Alpha Phi in 1906 and Pi Beta Phi in 1908.

In 1883, McGill University’s fraternity system came to life when Zeta Psi chartered a second Canadian chapter.  Again, as in the case of the University of Toronto, Zeta Psi was the only sole fraternity there in the 1880s. In the 1890s, it was joined by Alpha Phi Delta, Delta Upsilon, and Kappa Alpha Society. In 1922, Delta Phi Epsilon became the first NPC group to establish a chapter at McGill.

Today, there have been more than 150 chapters of North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) men’s fraternities and more than 75 NPC organization chapters at Canadian institutions. About three-quarters of those chapters are currently active. There are also many local fraternities and sororities.

url © Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

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Helen Marlowe, Tennis Champion, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Marine Captain

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Where do I find subjects for this blog? Sometimes I find them and sometimes they find me. For the past two days I have been working on cataloging some information on spreadsheets.

Enter Helen Marlowe, a member of the Xi chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha at the University of Southern California. Helen and her sister Mercedes, a Phi Mu, were tennis champions.  Together they won the 1930 national girls’ double championship. (Mercedes was once excused from playing at Forest Hills because she insisted on wearing bright red shorts under her “abbreviated skirt.”)

Ellsworth Vines, Sigma Nu, and Helen Marlowe, Zeta Tau Alpha (Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.)

Ellsworth Vines, Sigma Nu, and Helen Marlowe, Zeta Tau Alpha, at Longwood Court. (Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.)

In 1943, Helen  joined the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. She told her ZTA sisters about her training, “We paid for our front row seats with as tough and relentless an eight weeks of combined bootcamp and officers training as ever successive groups of girls ventured to tangle with – sixteen overstuffed hours a day plus the extra nights we spent boning for exams in the ladies room – she said politely! – which, for obvious reasons, was the only place in the barracks immune to ‘lights out’.” She added, “Granite-pussed sergeants who didn’t know we are supposed to be the weaker sex poured it on and kept on pouring….Life was a merry-go-round – hit the deck, dress in nine seconds flat drill, classes, exercise, inspections, march to breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then march back again, lectures, bootblackery, the pursuit of microscopic dust grains in squadrooms, making beds with square corners, head up and shoulders back, study, brush the teeth and take a shower in fourteen seconds (combined) and scramble back into the sack so you can do it over again. For diversion we rode in Higgins boats, tripped through the gas chamber, detonated assorted explosives, quaked before the rush of mock-attacking airplanes…”

Although 11 of her 80 classmates did not finish officer training, “Only once in the whole eight weeks, as I recall, did I have to say ‘And to think I left a swell job’ – as a film editor at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios – ‘and home and mother and a better-than-average boy friend for this!!'” 

On the Sunday graduation, as she had two gold bards pinned on her shoulders, she “realized with emotions I have never known before that I was a commissioned officer in the finest fighting force in the world – a lieutenant in the United Stated Marine Corps. It’s trite, but all I can say is – it was the proudest, most inspiring moment of my life.”

Helen graduated Officer Candidate School sixth with an average of 3.8/4.0 She became an instructor at Camp Lejeune. She taught machine guns, landing operations, tactics, and chemical warfare. She was later transferred to San Diego where she was on the staff of General Holland M. Smith.

An article in the November/December 1947  Themis of Zeta Tau Alpha entitled “Zeta’s First Gold Star,”  tells of her death.  In 1946, she was stricken with a pulmonary ailment and hospitalized for a year until her death. On July 28, 1947, she was buried with full military honors at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

The article ends, “Helen was known to Zetas everywhere through her articles in Themis during the war years. Full of verve and enthusiasm, they exemplified her fine spirit and outlook on life.”

SELECTIONS FROM THE EXHIBIT THE GREATEST GENERATION: A TRIBUTE BY CHRIS L. DEMAREST

SELECTIONS FROM THE EXHIBIT  THE GREATEST GENERATION: A TRIBUTE
By Chris Demarest.  The caption reads “Captain Helen Marlowe, USMC, an instructor in chemical warfare training at Camp Lejeune, 1943-45, She died  of a ‘lung condition’ at age 35 in 1947. She received the American Campaign and WWII Victory medals.”    Illustration courtesy of the artist

© 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/

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“A Hot Pilot is Born” to “Hello Dolly” – a ΘΦΑ Life Well Lived

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Reading old issues of fraternity and sorority magazines is one of my favorite hobbies. In flipping through the Winter 1946 issue of The Compass of Theta Phi Alpha, I found a page with the title “A Hot Pilot is Born.” 

The article tells the story of a Theta Phi Alpha from its Lambda chapter, Mildred “Millie” Lonergan. She and her sister Mary were in the chapter together. When I saw that she was from the Lambda chapter, I knew that meant she and I had a Syracuse bond. The Theta Phi Alpha house had been just down the street from my Pi Phi house. It was gone by the time I arrived at Syracuse. The Alibrandi Catholic Center is now located on the site. There is a plaque acknowledging Theta Phi Alpha’s contribution of the plot of land to the center. It is one of my favorite places to worship.

Millie won the Senior Service award in 1943 and Mary took the honor in 1945. Millie served as the chapter’s Vice President, Historian, Activities Chairman, and Chairman of the Special Events Committee. On campus, she was President of the City Women’s Club, Junior Editor of the Daily Orange, a member of the Newman Club, Theta Sigma Phi, and the Student Court Committee.

After graduation, she was hired by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. While working for the company in San Francisco, she heard a radio ad asking “Are you in a rut?” That question led Millie and her roommate to use their two week vacation to take flying lessons. “A secret dream of one donning a WASP uniform curled at my thoughts. Unfortunately, the organization folded without my contribution to the cause,” she wrote.

After two weeks of flying lessons, she went on her first solo flight. “With a trembling hand I shoved the throttle forward – ‘gave it the gun,’ we pilots say – until my ears were filled with a deafening roar and, as I pushed the stick forward, my little Cub and I flew down the runway. Gradually I inched back the stick, and suddenly the earth lay far below and I was winging my way toward the sun, singing at the top of my lungs with sheer ecstasy. I laughed and sang and prayed all around the pattern, my prayers increasing as I made the last turn and dropped toward the runway again. Believe it or not, I made my first – and last – perfect three-point landing.

“My instructor grabbed me in a mighty bear hug and only then did I realize that he had been just as scared as I. He took over the controls and we circled the field in a crazy fashion – then dove straight for the hangar for the most beautiful ‘buzz’ I’ve ever seen.

“Thus it was announced to the world that a new ‘Hot Pilot’ had been born.”

Well, that story was too good not to try to find out more. What happened to Millie? I googled and found Virginia State Senate Joint Resolution No. 211 dated March 7, 2014. I also found out that Millie married Jack McAuliffe. They had four sons, John, Joseph, Thomas, and Terence (Terry McAuliffe, the Governor of Virginia).

Millie died on February 13, 2014 at the age of 92. She spent almost all her life in Syracuse where she was a wife, mother, and community volunteer. She once worked at a Syracuse flower shop where she convinced men to purchase roses by saying, “Buy a rose for a dollar and save your marriage.”

The Virginia Senate resolution reads in part, “known for her joyful spirit, Millie McAuliffe brightened community and social events with her wry sense of humor and for singing rousing renditions of  ‘Hello, Dolly!’; and WHEREAS, a proud and devout Catholic, Millie McAuliffe enjoyed fellowship and worship with the community as a founding member of St. Ann’s Church; she served as a president of the Altar and Rosary Society.”

At the funeral service which was held on February 19, 2014 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, “Hello Dolly” was sung as the recessional. 

photo (33)

 © 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/

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A Thank You Video Lands Me on a Soapbox

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This gallery contains 1 photo.

I believe in thank you notes. The thank you note which the Pi Beta Phi Foundation recently received from Mallory Rawson, a scholarship awardee, reaches new heights in thank you notes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN3wYVZX0_8&feature=youtu.be). My friend and past Pi Beta Phi National … Continue reading →

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Friends Together, Friends Forever

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

It’s fraternity and sorority convention and leadership event time! My weekend was spent at Pi Beta Phi’s Alumnae Leadership Summit in St. Louis. Pi Phi’s conventions are in the odd years, since we were founded in 1867, and these smaller alumnae and collegiate events take place on separate weekends in even years. It was wonderful seeing old friends, and making some new ones.

This morning I was heartened by a series of tweets and retweets from Ginny Carroll, Alpha Xi Delta, noted sorority convention speaker, and Circle of Sisterhood founder. Alpha Epsilon Phi and Alpha Xi Delta were both having events in Atlanta. The Atlanta airport must have been awash in sorority women on Sunday morning as there are pictures of Alpha Xi Delta and Alpha Epsilon Phi women smiling together in pictures. One AEPhi sent Ginny a tweet “I met an AZD at the airport, went up to her & talked about how lucky we are too be sorority women. Thank you for this weekend!” Another tweet to Ginny from an AEPhi read, “MORE SORORITY WOMEN at ATL airport! Also said hello to a Delta Gamma, a Theta, and more AΞΔs!” My educated guess is that in her talk to the AEPhis, Ginny mentioned the power of sorority women. I suspect she suggested they greet other sorority women wherever and whenever they meet. It is so much fun to see the excitement in these tweets.

I recently came across this wonderful story of a Panhellenic greeting decades before the National Panhellenic Conference became a reality in 1902. At the 1934 Kappa Kappa Gamma Convention at Yellowstone National Park, the Pi Beta Phis sent a greeting to convention.  That greeting from Pi Beta Phi Grand Secretary Nita Hill Stark read, “One of our past presidents, Mrs. Noble* brought to our convention a copy of the greetings that the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sent to the Pi Beta Phi convention in 1878. Our grand council thought that this might be of interest to you, so I am sending you this copy. “Kappa Kappa Gamma sends greetings, with best wishes for the prosperity and happiness of her members. White the key does not unlock the door into the same mystic circle into which the arrow of I.C.** pierces, yet each opens the way to the higher walks of life which lead into gardens scented with the sweet perfume of sisterly love, where happy groups bound by silver cords of friendship hand in hand are striving to attain a height upon which personal independence shall build the citadel of virtue and woman character shall be the keynote of the citadel arch. May the arrow of I.C. pierce every difficulty and the key of Kappa Kappa Gamma unlock every barrier in the way until our lives may be spotless in the sunlight of the coming morn.'”

The July 6, 1934 issue of The Hoot, Kappa Kappa Gamma's Convention newspaper

The July 6, 1934 issue of The Hoot, Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Convention newspaper

Since it is a non convention year for Pi Beta Phi, I will have to content myself with being an internet observer of the festivities of other organizations. I need my convention fix folks, so please keep those social media accounts of convention coming!

*Emma Patton Noble also served as President of the Oklahoma State Chapter of P.E.O.

**Pi Beta Phi was founded as I.C. Sorosis in 1867 at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. It was founded upon the men’s fraternity model. From its very beginnings, Pi Beta Phi was the secret motto of the organization. Some chapters began using the Greek letters in the late 1870s and early 1880s. By vote of the 1888 convention, the organization took on its Greek motto and letters. I.C. Sorosis and Pi Beta Phi are one and the same organization. Contrary to some accounts on the internet and some books, Pi Beta Phi was never a literary society.

© 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/

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The Fraternity House Transformation, Cornhusker Style

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Anyone who has ever served on the alumni/alumnae chapter advisory committee or on a housing corporation board knows how difficult it can be to take care of a Greek-letter organization chapter house. Housing built in the heyday of fraternity house construction in the 1920s and 1930s presents certain challenges.

The Phi Gamma Delta chapter house at the University of Nebraska, located at 1425 R Street, recently underwent a makeover. The renovation cost nearly $2 million. Fire sprinklers and a carbon monoxide detection system were installed and a monitored fire alarm was put in place. The house has an updated heating system and central air conditioning. Energy efficient windows were installed. The house now has wireless internet with computer networking and printing capabilities, a need which wasn’t in anyone’s wildest dreams when the house was first built. The electrical system and  plumbing are new, too. The bathrooms were redone among other projects.

This blog written by a Phi Gamma Delta friend, at http://thisoldfijihouse.org/,  shows the rehab process as the University of Nebraska Phi Gamma Delta chapter house undergoes a transformation. Read from the bottom post up for the full effect. My hat is off to the men who made the transformation possible. It is a true labor of love.

phigammadelta

© 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/

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Thinking About “The Magazine Came Today” by Barbie Tootle

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Yesterday’s mail had copies of The Beta Theta Pi  and The Sig Ep Journal.  I usually stop everything and read The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi on the day it arrives. Even if I don’t have the time to read it, I will quickly turn the pages to see what’s in it. I feel the same way about the fraternity magazines of my husband and sons. I read those, too.

In bringing in the mail, I thought of something Barbie Tootle wrote more than 25 years ago. It appeared in the Winter 1987 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi. The article was about Barbie winning the College Fraternity Editors Association’s Evin Varner award. I remember reading it when it was first published and I came across it a week or two ago as I was searching for something else. It quickly came to mind as I turned the pages of The Beta Theta Pi which was brimming with historical information. 

Coincidentally, Barbie is one of the speakers at Pi Phi’s Alumnae Leadership Seminar this coming weekend. Barbie, along with Sarah Ruth “Sis” Mullis, shared Pi Beta Phi’s 1965 Amy Burnham Onken Award. The award is given to an exceptional graduating member. How wonderful that the powers in the know decided to have co-winners that year. Both women have been devoted to Pi Phi since the day they each pledged the organization.

Barbie, a former national president of the Association of Fraternity Advisors, was the organization’s first female to have that job. She has been an active member of many organizations including the Order of Omega.

This short essay was alongside The Arrow article. Barbie wrote it and used it in her remarks to the College Fraternity Editor’s Association after the award was presented. I thank Barbie for giving me permission to use it here.

photo (32)

The Magazine Came Today

The magazine came today,
in the pile of bills, occupant, and
You May Already Be A Winner!
Here’s my fraternity magazine.
I’ll browse through it before dinner.
 
The actives look so young.
For that matter, so does Grand Council.
I don’t remember anyone on council being pregnant
     when I was in school. They had blue hair.
 
Now it’s the students who have blue hair.
Thank heavens none of these members do.
-Oops, I spoke too soon. Blue spiked hair.
Why would the editor print that picture!
Figures. They were a weird chapter when I was in school.
 
Actives with their arms draped over one another’s shoulders
     in every candid.
Looks like they cropped out the beer cup in her hand.
Did we look like that?
     Well, there were those pictures at Greek Week,
     and Fiji Island. Ah, some party!
     I’ll have to dig those old pictures out.
We did look a lot like these women … even to the bermuda
     shorts!
A class reunion. They sure look old.
Class of ’63!
Only two years older than me.
Well, on second thought, they don’t look that old.
     We should plan a reunion soon.
     It would be great to see everyone.
 
Eating disorders,
theft in the house,
alcohol and drug problems –
I’m glad I’m not 20 now.
It was simpler then.
     How come it didn’t feel simple when I was there?
 
I can’t believe they allow them to wear their letter on
     their behinds!
I wonder if formal favors are as tacky as when I was in
     school?
Boxer shorts with Greek letters?
I must be getting old.
 
All this charity activity is reassuring to see.
Looks like they are having fun to me.
Why do the editors persist in using chapter names instead
     of school names?
I’ve long since forgotten –
If I ever knew-
Which is Oklahoma Beta
and California Nu.
 
There sure isn’t much in here about my chapter.
Why don’t they send things in?
I guess we didn’t think it was that important back then either.
But it is now.
 
Women athletes-that’s new.
Plenty of cheerleaders, too.
Beauty queens, Mortar Board, Phi Beta Kappa.
Looks like they are still OK.
     Funny, I can see my sisters on every page.
     Those were fun times.
 
After dinner, my nostalgic mood is remarked upon by my husband.
“You’ve talked of our college days all through dinner.
What brought this on?”
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about good friends .
 
By the way, the magazine came today.”
Barbara Oliver Tootle, "Barbie" to most about everyone, receives the 1987 Panhellenic Woman of the Year Award from Pi Beta Phi Grand President, Jean Wirths Scott. As a collegiate member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the Ohio State University, Barbie was a co-winner of Pi Phi's highest individual award. She and future Grand President of Pi Beta Phi, Sarah Ruth "Sis" Mullis, shared the 1965 Amy Burnham Onken Award.

Barbara Oliver Tootle, “Barbie” to most about everyone, receives the 1987 Panhellenic Woman of the Year Award from Pi Beta Phi NPC Delegate and Past Grand President, Jean Scott.

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Among Kindred Spirits – Recharging the Archivist’s Batteries

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This past weekend, the University of Illinois Archives’ Student Life and Culture Archival Program hosted the third National Archives Conference for Fraternities and Sororities. The conference is designed to provide archival training and support to headquarters staff and volunteers who oversee their organization’s archives.

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Meg Miner, university archivist and special collections librarian at Illinois Wesleyan University, spoke about “Preserving Digital Objects with Restricted Resources.” The Indiana State Museum’s head conservator Gaby Kienitz talked to us about artifact storage preservation and led us in two hands-on activities making museum mounts for important artifacts. In our case the important artifacts were a ring with googly eyes and a Hello Kitty pinback button. Angela Waarala, digital collections project manager at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, gave advice and lessons learned about digitizing fraternity and sorority magazines. Noraleen Young, Kappa Alpha Theta archivist and archival consultant for Past to Present, led the archives basics and collections management sessions. Christa Deacy-Quinn, collection manager at U of I’s Spurlock Museum, provided us with expert instructions on packing exhibits, a task we usually do when we take items to convention for a display.  Several of the attendees also took part in panel discussions about projects we have done in the recent past. Retired University of Illinois associate dean of students Willard Broom and Ashley Dye, director of fraternity and sorority affairs, spoke at the Saturday night dinner. As an aside, Ashley, a Pi Beta Phi, serves on her fraternity’s National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) delegation.

One of the best parts of the conference, aside from all the valuable information, is the chance to meet so many kindred spirits. The attendees were a mix of staff members and volunteers. The majority work for their own organizations. Noraleen Young was hired as a consulting archivist for Kappa Alpha Theta. She was later invited to become an alumna initiate and now she proudly wears her Theta badge. Nanci Gasiel, a Sigma Kappa, has the distinction of working for a men’s fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

It was fun learning that Phi Kappa Psi’s Archivist Timothy Tangen was bitten by the fraternity history bug as a newly initiated member. He and his mentor, Phi Psi Historian (and master tweeter) Mike McCoy, who spoke at Timothy’s initiation banquet, have attended all three conferences. I found another Syracuse alumna, Kristen Putch, Phi Sigma Sigma, among the attendees. We were seated together at dinner and we talked about our love for the history of Syracuse University. The attendees exchanged stories, ideas, historical tidbits about our own organization’s history. Phi Gamma Delta’s award winning, all volunteers paying their own way and lodging, Archives Weekend is likely to be copied by a good many other groups.

There were also representatives of some relatively young fraternity groups. They are lucky in so many ways; they can document the organization’s history so much better because most founders are still living and technology allows for so many different ways of preserving those stories.

The conference takes place every two years and I encourage any fraternity and sorority groups who haven’t attended to send an e-mail to contact Ellen Swain, archivist for Student Life and Culture, at eswain@illinois.edu, to be put on the mailing list for the next conference.

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© 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/

Posted in Fran Favorite, Greek-letter Organization History, National Panhellenic Conference, Phi Gamma Delta, Sorority History, Student Life and Culture Archival Program, University of Illinois | Tagged , , | 1 Comment