Master fraters and alumni officers

REFLECTIONS FROM OUR MASTER FRATERS

Harvey Weitzman 1957

Harvey was one of the founding fathers of our chapter. Unfortunately I have been unable despite many attempts to find him.

Sanford (Sandy) Slade 1958

Sandy passed away 3/10/20 also a founding father. I have spoken to Sandy many times over the years and have spoken to many others about Sandy. The information that I got by all says that he was the shaker and mover who took the Chapter from colonization to full chapter status. Everyone I spoke with said he was an exceptional leader and without him there would never have been Phi Sigma Delta at UMass.

John Tarvainen 1959 Steve Sackmary tells me John is in a rehab facility in Colorado. He turned 90 March 11. John ends his regards to all.

Steve Sackmary 1960

Stan, Thank you for the invite to pen a few words about the early, formative years of PSD that you can consider for your “Master Frater Article”. Before I begin, let me say that, in my opinion the work done by the brothers of the 1960s and 1970s had much more impact on the growth of the chapter than those formative years in the 1950s. What we had in the fall of 1956 was a small pledge class of around seven freshmen that included Al Brockman, Lee Katz, Don Brightman, me and others. The other names should be in the class yearbooks from 1957 and 1958. We were adventurous enough to pledge a Colony and bet on a successful future.

We were the smallest Fraternity at UMass. We attracted pledges that did not support the bullying and degrading forms of hazing such as paddling, binge drinking etc.  I wish I could recall the exact date we received our charter and changed from Alpha Lambda Colony to Alpha Mu Chapter. I pledged the Colony at the time Sandy Slade was the driving force keeping in touch with Babe Lewin and pushing for us to become a Chapter. It was not easy attracting pledges when we had no fraternity house. Dean Hopkins put some of us in Lewis dorm on the hill above the women’s dorm in the quadrangle.

We did have a rutted dirt road nearby that abutted some open land and some woods. It was nicknamed “Lovers Lane”. One source of new pledges as we grew was commuting students who lived at home while attending UMass such as twin brothers Bob and Walter Fujczak. Both were highly active in campus activities and service organizations. Another source was Veterans. Jim Nanbu was former US Navy, John Tarvainen was US Army. I was glad to be part of the startup and have always enjoyed new venture action in my long manufacturing career. My experience at Phi Sigma Delta gave me the confidence to handle all sort of unusual challenges and startups.

But wait! There’s more! In 1969 I completed my MBA at the University of Rochester; “Mom” Margret Sangree who was our first housemother in 1958 joined my wife and our two boys for the graduation ceremony and dinner. It was a special joy to share the day with her.

Steve followed up with some additional comments. Babe Lewin from PSD National was our sponsor, financial source, and the fraternity chapter planner who led us to Chapter status as Alpha Mu Chapter. Babe also helped find the 367 No. Pleasant St House and arranged financing. Rushing for pledges wasn’t easy when the Colony had no house. We held rush smokers at the Aqua Vita Restaurant in Northampton.

Sandy Slade was President when our Alpha Lambda Colony became Alpha Mu Chapter. Another Colony beat us timing-wise to the Alpha Lambda designation. Babe Lewin stood by us as our initial group became Chapter Members. He also went with us to our pivotal Amherst Zoning Board hearing to gain approval for the property to be zoned for a fraternity. He must have helped many chapters to have an award named after him. 

Example: seen on a Google search: ZBT awards this honor to chapters doing well in alumni relations…. Alexander “Babe” Lewin Award—Outstanding Alumni Programming and Relations

My National Convention trip was to Houston. My escorts were twin sisters from one of the sororities in Houston. The Master Frater ring was unexpected surprise. How it never got lost in all my moves is a miracle.

Two days ago John Tarvainen and I had a long talk-mostly about family. John is in an assisted living facility at Pikes Peak Post-Acute in Colorado Springs. He has four children, oldest being 58. Each has spent time in Alaska. He has 3 sons and 1 daughter, Marcia and I stayed several days with the family in 1973. We lived out of our trailer. Last saw John here in Austin a few years ago.  So as far as memories and stories of those long ago days John did not share anything too specific. He said he enjoyed the brotherhood, house life, meals, social events and helping fellow fraters. He enjoyed pitching softball for PSD and continued to play for years. He was one of the finest, hard workers I’ve ever known.

Andrew Soucy 1961    Despite years of searching we have been unable to locate Andrew

Ronald Leeds 1962     Also unable to locate Ronald

Robert Keene 1963

Unfortunately my memory is a little sketchy. I was elected in December for the year 1963. Everything was great from what I recall. Dorothy Pyle was our housemother. She had a collie dog that was no problem, slept in her room and didn’t interfere with any house activities. I remember having our banquet off campus (south of Amherst, maybe someone can recall where) and being able to attend before I deployed with the Coast Guard in June 1964. The National Convention was in Denver that summer which I was able to attend as well, and have fond memories of that week to this day. I do have something that comes to mind when thinking of that year, and it’s quite a story. I came home about 10:30 from Wilder Hall and found several brothers who heard there was a pledge raid that night, and they were in the living room planning something. I brushed it off and went to my room, to bed, and then awoke early that morning with noise that there was a shooting and someone had been shot. I ran down the stairs and found pledge James Wantman had been shot by my Vice President Dick Dimock. It seems he thought he disarmed his rifle (we were allowed to have weapons in the house-hard to believe now!) but it had some bird pellets still in it. The morning Boston Record American headlines were something like “Don’t shoot till you see the white of their eyes.” Dick was arrested, suspended from school, and spent some time in jail. The brothers were terrific and were willing to bail Dick out of jail, even though our funds would be depleted for semester meals. Turns out his parents ended up bailing him out. That’s what I recall!  Feel free to use what you want, or if you have any questions let me know. Or maybe my memory really is awful and my story way off.

Robert (Roddy) Rodriguez 1964    Roddy is another Brother we have been unable to located

Earl Finley 1964

When I was MF and Ed Hanson was Treasurer, we were always tight financially. A couple of the Brothers approached us with the idea of installing a (illegal) beer machine on the second floor of the house. Essentially, it would be a coke bottle machine. The Brothers would drink the beer and the House would make money. In came the machine. The Brothers would sun on the lower roof on the second floor (over the front porch, I believe) guzzling beer.  Everything was great until Ed realized the house was selling beer at a loss. We were exacerbating our tenuous financial position. Ed and I decided the beer machine had to go (and it did, much to the disappointment of the guzzlers. You can run this by Ed to see if I screwed up the story.  I always chuckle when I think of this. Here we were a nationally Jewish (supposedly business smart) fraternity and we were convinced by the beer drinkers to sign on to an “easy money making” proposition. Another story though not (maybe) when I was mf.  As I’ve mentioned, our Phi Sig budget was very tight. To provide music for our parties we hired the Starfire’s, a 3 man group in shiny blue jackets. Cost $45, they were so loud and space was so tight in the basement, they played in the make out room on the first floor. It was really weird walking into the House seeing these 3 guys playing with not a soul around (while it was tumultuous in the basement.. One of the Starfire’s was pretty heavy. When we hired them the next year, the guy had lost a ton of weight but hadn’t modified this jacket. He looked pathetic with his jacket draping over his shoulders. Starfire’s were cheap and loud-just what we needed.

Dick Furash 1965

Here’s a piece of history…. After I became a brother, I looked at some of the photos from prior years. In one I saw my sisters High School boyfriend, His name Neil Holman, from Sharon. What a coincidence. He was one of the first brothers. Hello Stan hopes this finds you well. Things are great here in Tucson, and planning to be on the Cape this summer. If you are looking for stories about how guys got drunk and fell all over themselves, I’m not that guy. What I am is a guy who can provide you with a perspective, however, on the four years (1062-1966) that I was a brother, a perspective that I think is unique because I got to see the fraternity as a brother, a pledge master, a treasurer, and president over time.

Some history….because history matters in this case. When I joined the fraternity in 1962-63, the place was in tough shape. There were perhaps 10 members, and many were graduating, and it had a “weird” reputation on campus. You might ask: Why would I join? Because there was something about the guys and their focus on academics that I liked. I really thought Bob Keene was a neat guy, and Steve Goldstein, my big brother was also a good dude Also Gerry Goldhaber made sure the kitchen ran right. Each guy I met was, well, cool! And they were really smart…. So they could help me if I needed it! I joined in the spring of ’63 with three other guys to form the largest pledge class they had in years: Four. There was me, my Brett House roommate, Paul Ginsburg, and two other guys from Brett House: Roddy Rodriguez and Jerry Bliss. We liked each other, and we figured we could really have some fun in this fraternity. That’s exactly what we did. I was pledge master the next year, and we had the largest pledge class they ever had: 16 guys. I wanted pledging to be fun so I’m the guy that instituted the “one hen, two ducks, three squawking geese” thing.  I didn’t want paddling, and I hated hazing. I wanted the pledges to look at our place as their home. It was a great pledge class. Many of them brought in even more good guys into the house in later years. So we were on a roll until…..Dick Dimock decided to screw around one night with his shotgun when the pledges had a “raid”. Unfortunately Dick thought he had loaded salt pellets into the chamber, but they were actually live rounds. He shot a really good pledge Jimmy Wantman. I can only imagine the look on Bob Keene’s face while the house mother was there picking pellets out of Jimmy. It was a freaking disaster. But Keene was a gamer; he made sure the fraternity got no more than a minimal penalty. He was magnificent! After that we decided that we really needed to get on track. So Roddy became Master Frater at one point. I became treasurer and then Master Frater. (To be honest I don’t remember Earl Finley being president, but I’m sure he was really good!). I focused on one thing the year I was Master Frater….and that was making sure that we had good food in the house, good parties, good pledges and building a reputation on campus as the place to be. I did not seek reelection as president because I believed the positions should be rotated. Blood is always great when it comes to building something, and we were building something. I really am very proud of all of you for what you have done to keep our spirit alive. I send you my handshake! ---Dick

 Bill English 1965    Just talked to Bill Troupe. He mentioned the growth of our membership. We beat Alpha Sig in football around then and also won intramural bowling.
 Jon Campbell 1966    I can say a few things about my time as Master Frater. First I don’t have my Master Frater ring, don’t know what happened to it. I do have my pledge card dated Apr. 19, 1964, and my membership card dated Dec. 19, 1964. I was President (MF) in 1966 and went to the National Convention in Cleveland and received a plaque for Alpha Mu’s outstanding scholarship per an article in the Deltan which I still have. Also, have a card from a girl from UCONN who I pinned that congratulates me for being Brother of the Year in 1966.

Steve Whitkin 1967

During my two semesters as Master Fraters the following occurred:

1.    We adopted a Greek foster child, Stamatios Markakis, who, if he is still alive today, will be 70 in August. We supported him in 1967 and 1968.

2.    We did extensive fundraising on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, going door to door in Amherst and having a pretty big bash on the front lawn of the House. We raised $560.00, which is the equivalent of almost $5,200 in 2024 money.

3.    We did a lot of continuous rushing and membership grew to about 70 brothers in 67-68.

4.    After being one of the perennial doormats in fraternity sports competition, we placed 5t out of 16 in 1967.

5.    We won the President’s Award for Achievement in 1967 for being the most improved Phi Sig fraternity.

6.    Of course, these things happened because of the efforts of a lot of the brothers. I remember having fun, but I took the job of President seriously.

 Kevin O’Reilly 1968

During my reign at Phi Sigma Delta scholarship, manners, learning to be a good citizen never was all that important. Rather---how did we get to be competitive athletically against houses like Kappa Sig and TKE? (Never did!) When Ronnie Rogers graduated our chances of dealing with them on a basketball court vanished overnight. Our frontcourt of just barely six footers like DelSesto really didn't scare anyone. We were lucky to have Sammy in the league but they were the only ones we could really pencil in as an assured victory. However, there was always the next door farmers at ATG that usually had a tough time putting together a decent team. When they popped up that year they could barely muster a 5 man squad.

However, we held up our part by playing poorly enough to be losing by a point with only seconds to go when some meathead on their team got into a beef stew with our guys and almost all of their team was thrown out. The final ATG guy had a brain-lock and instead of rolling the ball into play and having time run out tossed it the length of the court where an astonished Mark laid it in with no time left. 

This is the stuff I remember from college!!

Mark DelSesto 1969    Mark did not respond to a couple of outreach requests.

Stan Kittredge 1970

It was an honor to be selected by my Brothers to be their Master Frater. My year was an exciting, gratifying and great year for our Chapter. Earlier in the fall we had moved into our “new house” which enabled us to sleep 48 Brothers and their guests. The Chapter had experienced great growth thanks to those who came before and we reached our all-time high of 87 active Brothers.

Our sports teams competed in all sports and brought home several campus championships. Individual awards were earned by wrestlers and in particular I remember Tony Lauria being chosen as UMass Intramural Athlete of the Year. That award was followed up a couple years later by another Phi Sigma Delta brother, Vic Keedy.

Our reputation on campus continued to grow and when Rick (Smoke) Fortier and I attended the National convention we came home with a large trophy as “Fraternity of the Year.”

Life was good, great parties, teams and everything that went along with being part of a great group.

As I sit and write this some 55 years later I am impressed and fortunate to be among such a loyal group of guys. Never during my first visit to the Chapter did I ever envision relationships that would last so long and be so fulfilling. I am glad I chose Phi Sigma Delta and glad they chose me.

Tim Maki 1971

When I was the MF most of my work involved establishing the Greek Council out of Panhellenic and IFC. Some of my best memories included a slightly inebriated Spring Day and sitting on the back of Stan’s convertible but flying off the back in the middle of North Pleasant when you gunned it. (We won’t talk about the night Jayne “introduced” herself when you and I were roommates.) Great times with Kate and Ed…taking EJ to Burger King and Tom Casper making us all wear the paper crowns and staying up late on Friday night watch old comedians’ movies like WC Fields and the Marx Brothers, while Ed regaled us with stories of his time as a Marine. How about Stan making long distance calls to Vinny R in Turkey? Eddie DiLorenzo’s dad buying us a keg while Tony Lauria’s told about life in East Boston. Taking pledge up Rte 202 and getting back to find them already in the party room.

Dana White 1972

I finished up my “hitch” in the Army in the summer of 1971 and moved into the new house (Old QTV house) with the other Phi Sigs. I lived in a quad on the second floor which was then a triple with me, Bob Latour and Tom Casper.  Tim Maki was the President, I soon became aware that this house was much bigger than the old Phi Sig house across the street and that interest in Fraternities had been declining, during the last two years. As a result, our house had numerous vacant beds.

After I became President in early 1972, we rented out a few rooms on the 3^rd floor to provide some additional revenue to pay the house rent, which as I remember was $30,000 for the school year and an additional $2,000 for the summer. By late spring, it became apparent with the decreased membership and heightened challenge to recruit new members I determined that we must seek to reduce our rent. Pursuant to that I contacted QTV alumni board chairman Gordon Oaks about renegotiating our rent. At that time Mr. Oaks was a very successful & prominent businessman in Springfield. (e.g. President of Bay Bank), CEO at Monarch Capital which was later sold to Paul Allen who founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Gordon was also on the Basketball Hall of Fame board and chair of the UMass Board of Trustees, 1988-93). Well I don’t think I was a match for Gordon as a “hard ball negotiator”, and he simply said that the rent was non-negotiable and he would be over on Saturday to inventory the furniture and other house property in anticipation of our moving out at the end of the semester. He conducted the inventory with his team and our board. Subsequently, I had a special house meeting to notify the Brothers. The prospect of almost immediately vacating the property with no plans for any housing for the fall was meet with an overwhelming feeling of gloom & disapproval. Consequently we notified him that we would like to renew our lease which he accepted. He did say we could save $2,000 by not renting for the summer, which I thought was a good savings. I notified the Brothers and there was a great sight of relief knowing we could return to our residence in the fall.

Prior to our September arrival and facing debilitating rent, we learned that the sorority Pi Phi was losing their house. We seized on the idea after meeting with them and thought they might rent the third floor. They were eager to the idea and both memberships approved the idea. Seventeen of their members moved to the third floor. This concept was unprecedented at UMass. We developed clear and defined set of policies. During this semester which was my second semester as President and final semester of my living in the house before moving to Puffton Village, with Vic Keedy and Mel Thompson, the membership did pretty well respecting both living spaces. I recall that we even had a few joint activities like our dual membership trip to a dilapidated old house (haunted?) on Halloween in Shutsbury, where amidst the wreckage Skip Kelly fell through the floor into the basement. No damage to Skip, thankfully he was well anesthetized and it served as a stark reminder warning all about this good natured fun & search for adventure. Anyway we gained a lot of rent money and we almost finished the year in the black. After the spring semester at Puffton Village both Mel & I graduated and John Cycz was in charge of the house for 1973. Hope you can use some of this for your project. I think the 3^rd floor rental to Pi Phi is significant.

John Cycz 1973

As Pres. Dana White mentioned in his previous narrative, Phi Sigma Delta experienced a major transition during the early 1970s. In the spring of 1971, the Fraternity was located on the east side of North Pleasant Street, next to the church and had a live-in capacity of 18, with total Brotherhood of 49. In the fall of 1971, PSD moved across the street to the former QTV building, which had a capacity of 48 with a huge party room/bar, extensive kitchen facility, large living room, and much larger parking lot (unfortunately, it also had electric heat and large glass windows). During 1972, PSD was still thriving, with frequent sorority exchanges, major parties and other events with its extensive social budget. Dana also alluded to the decreasing interest in fraternities on campus. With the transition from across the street, the “feeding grounds” for recruitment from the dorms was discontinued and membership decreased to 31 Brothers. In an attempt to subsidize the housing costs, rooms on the third floor were rented to non-Brothers. In the falloff 1972, Pi Phi Sorority rented the third floor and shared the common areas of the house. We now had 17 new “Sisters” (as relationships developed, many of the Brothers dated the Sisters, with one resulting in a marriage – Pres. Tim Maki).

When I became President in 1973, the financial woes of the House continued. One major change occurred, as the Brotherhood voted to disassociate with Phi Sigma Delta National, thus becoming a local Fraternity, Phi Sigma with 31 Brothers. I was the last President of Phi Sig in 1974, the QTV Alumni Board, which owned the real estate but had no active chapter, approached PSD and offered to merge PSD into QTV, In order to have the opportunity to continue the college fraternity experience, the Brotherhood voted to accept. Pres. Bob Beyer, VP Ed Colby and their executive board became the newly elected officers of QTV. The new entity continued for a few years then disbanded, with groups of Brothers living together in the Fearing Street area.

Aftermath

In the early 2000s, Zeta Beta Tau fraternity established a chapter on campus, and through the efforts of alumni treasurer, Stan Kittredge, we formed a relationship and extended our life on the UMass campus. For several years we joined the students for homecoming events, softball games, and visits to the House (ZBT and PSD Nationals had merged in 1969. Thus the renewed association).

In recent years, the PSD Alumni Association has been very active, with annual reunions, frequent social gatherings and sports events. We have been informed that our group is the longest standing Fraternal Alumni Association that remains active (thank you, Stan).

It has been my pleasure to get to know many of the Brothers that graduated (or at least attended) UMass before I did (I always state that “we experienced Phi Sig at different times, together”). I truly am closer to some of the older Brothers than I am to some of those I attended school with.

In closing, I wish the best of health to all of my Brothers, and I thank you for the Phi Si experience, some of the best years of my life.

No history of our Chapter would be complete without mentioning the establishment of our Alumni Association. At our first major reunion in 1987 we gathered in my hotel room on a Sunday morning, elected officers and set out on a new path. The following officers have served as President.—Stan

Bob Malavich

Vinny Grandonico

Bill Spierdowis

Kevin O’Reilly

Bill Troupe

Mike Parker

Ralph Goldfarb

Their comments are as follows.

Bob Malavich- died 8/8/23

Vinny Grandonico-, circa 1999-2002 (2003?)

When Stan asked me to summarize some of the accomplishments achieved during my years as Association President, I had to rely on notes and documents from my cellar. Not as difficult as asking me what I had for lunch yesterday, but nonetheless, a challenge! As I look back, I think the most significant achievement was the creation of the first PSD Website. It certainly was not as anywhere near what we have today, due to the efforts of Brother Lloyd Bristol, but it launched a broader, more effective means for all of us to stay connected and extend our reach to Brothers all over the country. It helped bring more of us together, encouraged some to attend their first Reunion, and provided an additional means to re-connect and share each other's lives. Our initial website provider was "zMinuteman" and they said we were the first Umass fraternity to establish a website. They used ours as a model to establish a site for the UMass Class of 1954. Another accomplishment that comes to mind was the creation of the PSD Scholarship Fund. Though the scholarships we provided were monetarily small, they were another means of extending the bond of Brotherhood.

Two Reunions come to mind: 8/4/01 at Mill Valley Golf Links in Belchertown, MA (owned by Brother Tim Kurty '76) (little did we know what would occur just a few weeks later); and 8/3/02 at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA. Fun, well-attended and always included a Brother attending for the first time! Several gatherings for UMass sporting events in Amherst included many Brothers. No matter the sport, win or lose, lots of fun together cheering on our Minutemen and Minutewomen!

And we cannot forget the cookouts and softball/football games vs the ZBT undergrads. Our (beer-aided) bulk was an asset in football; not so in softball.......

In conclusion, I was happy to serve my short time as Association President, but we all know the true "Master Frater" is Stan Kittredge. Thankfully, Stan has been the glue that has held us together all these years.

Bill Spierdowis-Under Bill’s leadership our mission statement was developed. Bill says anything lasting 50+ years is a testimate to our Brotherhood

Kevin O’Reilly- Kevin is currently undergoing treatment so I did not push him for comments but under his leadership our scholarship program was started. Kevin’s generous gift got us off with a great start. To date 87 scholarships have been awarded.

Bill Troupe- One thing that stands out is that just before I pledged in 63 one of the brothers, Dick Dimmick, in response to a pledge raid, pulled out his shotgun, which was loaded with a shell filled with salt. Apparently it was rock salt and a pledge was injured and it made it into the local papers. It all went away when they decided it was a fraternity prank. Another thing I remember about pledge rage was when me and John Campbell and Bill English called one and we all ended up in the middle of N. Pleasant St. Having a shaving cream fight when the cops pulled up. They sent us home with a boot in the ass. That particular raid we pulled off was a suicide raid, knowing that we’d get caught. The TV room was full of guys watching TV and we burst in from the kitchen spraying shaving cream, and then throwing an enormous container of chocolate powder all over the room . All the brothers were coated in brown cocoa. That must’ve been hilarious for the cops to see.

Another fond memory was when we had five or 6 yards of sand dumped into the basement for our beach party. it was easy getting it in, but then the pledges had to spend many many hours hauling it out and dumping it in the back parking lot. For years there were sand grit all over the floor and the first floor no matter how much we swept it up. I recall we made a lifeguard chair that was sitting in the middle of the Dancefloor. 

Another great memory comes along when our phi Sig interfraternity football team beat Kappa Sig.

I have lots of fun memories of our fraternity softball team going from no wins my freshman year to 80% wins in my junior and senior years. We also won the fraternity championship in bowling. I believe the team consisted of Fortier , Foisy, Witkin, And Mike Parker. Please forgive some of the spelling mistakes on these names as I am using my dictation mode to send this long email.

I recall attending a pledge formal in 1966 were a whole bunch of us stayed overnight Larry Hirsch’s mothers girls camp out near

Pittsfield. It was in April, and it was quite chilly and there were no heaters in the rooms. Thankfully we had our girlfriends to cuddle with and keep us warm.

When us guys in the class of 67 graduated, we all stayed on for senior week and lived in the house. Even some of the guys who were not living at the house normally stayed there with us. Dave Fisher, who happened to be the steward, made sure there was plenty of money left over for senior week and we ate like kings, ribeye, steaks, and lobsters with the rule of the day. Most of us had our girlfriend stay with us for the entire period. There were picnics and cookouts at some of the local state parks put on by the class . Pete Seeger came to entertain, and there was a big banquet at some hotel in West Springfield. 

I finally remember a bunch of us renting a big U-Haul truck and going out to a town called New Braintree. John Ryback

 Who lived near there noticed that there was an old barn that had fallen over, and he asked the owner if we could come out and take Board that was lying all over the place. The farmer was glad to get rid of it. We must’ve taken 500 board of board and brought it back to the house and panel some of the rooms with it. We also hosted a couple of wagon, wheels, and other antiques. 

Speaking of scrounging around, I remember Bob Jackson went into some of the new tower Recreation rooms down in Southwest and appropriated a nice new KLH stereo for the house. He called his activities, the midnight stereo caper.

A group of us used to study down at Morrill in the evenings, and I discovered that there was an office there that was unlocked. There was a phone on the desk, and we quickly determined it was a watts line. We proceeded to make hundreds of long-distance calls over that year from that line.

Several guys in the house were musicians, and I would pair up with Titleman, Rybeck, Dave, Goldberg, and play for Saturday night parties when we didn’t have the money to hire a band. Even Gerry cream would come in and play his trumpet, giving a great rendition of when the Saints go marching in. 

One of my fondest memories was the success. The house had from 1964 to 1967 in tripling our membership with a lot of really sharp guys, and having such success on the athletic fields. I know I personally was very proud to walk around with my Phi Sig jacket on.

I guess one of the things I enjoyed the most was just the simple feeling of warm friendship and brotherhood by being in the house. None of us had a pot to pee in. We still managed to make it a wonderful experience with hard work and love.

These are just a few of the things that pop into my mind right off the bat. I’m sure there are many many more. Thanks for doing this and I will look forward to seeing when it’s all compiled. Bill.

Mike Parker-   As President, I enjoyed connecting with the brothers, many of whom were folks that I really didn’t know. It was fun instituting the “tontine” and getting the brothers to sign the bottle. I know John is the baby and thinks he will be the last man standing. I hope he is. On the other hand, only the good die young and some of us have been pretty awful. Mike was also instrumental in organizing the first ZOOM calls.

Ralph Goldfarb- Current Association President-  I know many of you would like to join us for our reunion at UMass in September, but often circumstances interfere. However, I know that if you are not there in person, you will be with us in spirit.

I leave you with these words of wisdom that I learned from the Bison, who are very clearly much like our Phi Sigma Delta Brothers.

1.     Stand your ground

2.     Have a tough hide

3.     Cherish wide open spaces

4.     Have a strong spirit

5.     Roam free and wild

6.     Let the Buffalo chips fall where they may