Chakett Club Newsletter V17-1 December 14, 2014

Volume 17, Issue 1  December 14, 2014 Chapter Alpha Welcomes the Rod Smith, ΡΔ’96 Takes the Reins Return of the Chakett Club for Rebirth of Chakett Club Over the past year, the chapter has made signif- I am happy to have the opportunity to serve foricant positive changes. Looking back to where the the initial months of the renewal of the Chakett Clubchapter was when I first joined - and where we are Alumni Association – named in honor of the originalnow, it is amazing to see. One area, however, which we founders of our chapter who took the same name forhave greatly neglected in the past is creating and main- the colony started at Oglethorpe in 1968. Brad and histaining solid alumni relations. I believe it is one of the current Brothers have done great work in maintainingmost important things for a chapter not only to make the integrity of our organization, and have a real inter-positive changes, as we have, but also to have the est in greater alumni involvement. I hope that we canalumni involved in continuing that trend. collectively find good ways to support the active mem- bers, whether it is through career networking, scholar- In many ways, establishing long lasting rela- ship promotion, or Anniversary event planning. It istionships with alumni is the key to taking a chapter to great to see the guys enjoying their OU time like wethe next level; from good to great. Coincidentally, it is did, and I am excited about supporting them and con-also the area the chapter has disregarded in many ways tributing to the Chapter.up to this point. This is the one area which I wouldmost like to see change. Not only is it important for When I think back to the Chapter’s move ontoyoung alumni to remain connected to the chapter after campus 20 years ago, I can remember our involvementtheir graduation, but it is also imperative to include in the planning of the 25th anniversary, to make it a re-alumni who have been away for many years. ality with so many alumni and guests in attendance spanning each generation of Rho Delta. It was a truly It was great to see many of the older alumni remarkable milestone in the history of the Chapter, andwho had been away for many years come back to the demonstrated that many of our friendships are \"not four45th anniversary. I have seen the great work of the Cha- years, but forty”.kett Club through newslettersand scrapbooks from the past Those of us that were involved in the Chapter,and would love to see our alum- and in the Chakett Club Alumni association startedni association become as strong when we moved on campus from the historic Wieucaas it once was. I hope this news- House, got a lot of satisfaction in creating an alumniletter reaches all of you well and association that could maintain our ties to each otheron behalf of the Chapter, wish and aid the chapter in the future.all of you happy holidays. We established a scholarship fund, raised mon- Fraternally, ey for house improvements, and held alumni events Brad Flagg, 5'‘16 during the course of the year. We began the planning Alpha for the Continued on Page 2

2 The Chakett ClubContinued from Page 130th anniversary almost as soon as the 25th had conclud- We will soon have a FaceBook Group to serve ased. But over time connections were lost, and people went a communication forum. We also have an email accounttheir separate ways with new careers, family, etc. Now, established at [email protected] We want to hearthe chapter has voiced a desire for improving alumni rela- from you! Please share news of your families, careers,tions and has been and messages for in-working toward that clusion in future com-goal. munications. The nextFollowing the newsletter is slated for45th anniversary this February. We areApril some of the looking forward topast members of the supporting the Chap-Chakett Club began ter, and rebuilding losttalking about reviv- contacts. The Chaptering the Association has a fine group of ac-and working with the tive Brothers andChapter to establish young Alumni, whoan effort to reconnect wish to increase alum-alumni with each ni participation, and tieother and the Chap- the generations intoter, and to look for- ongoing communica-ward to future annual tion.events including In closing, weplanning for the are all looking forward50th anniversary in The Original Chakett Club 1968 to seeing this effort2019. At the same time, the 20 year lease on the current evolve into an organization that will remain active intochapter house on the Campus had expired, and the Uni- the future. I ask you to establish contact with us viaversity was pressing the Chapter into a new agreement [email protected] and spread the word. The nextthey found less than favorable. With the help of several Anniversary function will be April 17 – 19th if you wantalumni who had been involved in the original lease and to renew those ties in person.move on campus, the Chapter was able to resolve manyof the concerns in the proposed lease and now has a se- Fraternally,cure place on the Oglethorpe campus to call home. Thisis the kind of productive work we can do for the active Rod Smith, 5'’96members.Over the summer, further talks between the Chap-ter leadership and the members of the Chakett Club haveresulted in this effort to re-establish the Alumni organiza-tion. We are looking forward to a low-key annual eventnext April, in conjunction with the University AlumniWeekend, April 17 -19, but hope to build that annualevent over the next few years into a very special50th anniversary. In this newsletter you will find the out-line we are working on, in conjunction with the Chapterand the Oglethorpe University Alumni Office. For now, Alumnus Brother Smith, 5' ‘96 withwe will be concentrating our efforts on reaching out daughter Caroline.alumni to build a network from our five decades. Youwill find in this newsletter, a list of “lost” alumni that wedo not have contact information for. Please help us re-connect with them if you can.

3 The Chakett Club3 By Joseph Johnson, 5'’17 - Gamma & Scholarship Chair Education is a big deal here at Rho Delta. And we meanBIG. Last semester, Rho Delta had the highest GPA of anyGreek organization here at Oglethorpe, and that says a lot sincethere are ten social Greek organizations here on campus and wehave thirty nine brothers! We just received this semester’s GPAwhich came in at an impressive 3.035. This only adds to the factthat we play hard and we work even harder. This semester alone,several bounds have been taken in our Scholarship committee inorder to uphold our educational standards. We have decided toestablish a 2.8 minimum GPA standard for brothers of Rho Del-ta. In order to help our Brothers perform at the level whichwe believe they should, a study room has been built and our li-brary reorganized through the efforts of Brother Pruner, BrotherJohnson and Alumnus Brother Rawls. In our new study room theBrothers can utilize books that have been donated by past Broth-ers for a wide range of classes from Core to Economics. Alsothere is a computer located in this room which is connected to aprinter that allows Brothers to print their documents for free andwithout having to use the library and their increasingly slowservers. The Rho Delta house is also home to the fastest Wi-Fion campus, holding the router for all of the upper quad in ourbasement, as well as a separate network which is password pro-tected and used strictly for Brothers who need access to an inter-net source that is separate from the Oglethorpe network. In addi-tion to the study room, we have given out study hours to any The New Rho Delta Study RoomBrother or Pledge who does not meet our standard, to assist them in raising their GPA over the semester. Scholarship is climbing within our Chapter, and is by far one of the most important aspects to all of our Brothers, whose majors’ range from Engineering to Theatre, and we settle for nothing less than excellence in our academics. We hope to continue to uphold this standard of education for our Brothers and to continue holding the highest GPA on campus. Brother Johnson & His Coffee Maker at the Christmas Formal

4 The Chakett Club “Brothers indicated that although some reminders of the “Old Wieuca House” remained, the house was basically an empty shell….a piece of history.” Weiuca House Gets A Facelift chapter. Looking back to those days in a previous century, By Jonathan “CD” Rawls, 5'‘85 those of us who had the opportunity to spend our forma- tive years as young brothers there will remember that theThe following article includes information from the old house had seen its day, and fallen into considerableOctober 1998 edition of the Chakett Club Newsletter, disrepair. The owner was not willing to put into the housein commemoration of the Chap- the major upgrades required to repairter’s 22nd year in the house on the it. After the Chapter moved out inOglethorpe University campus. November of 1993, a group of young people working in the Buckhead area Many alumni have fond mem- moved into the house for the nextories of the chapter’s house on Wieu- two years. At the same time, theca Road. The Chapter moved into the Church looked into remodeling thehouse, situated next to the Wieuca house for additional office space butRoad Baptist Church, and across from found the cost too high. For threePhipp’s Plaza shopping mall, in the years following 1995 the house hadsummer of 1976. This new home was been vacant and in further disrepair.to become the focus of the chapter Exploration by several curious Broth-after having a rocky start in four dif- ers over that time indicated that alt-ferent houses in the preceding six hough some reminders of the “Oldyears by the then young Rho Delta The Gutted Inside of Wieuca House” remained, the houseChapter. The Chapter would remain the Wieuca House was basically an empty shell.at the Wieuca house for another seventeen years, until theopportunity to move into newly constructed Greek Hous- Enter the family of Keehlning on the Oglethorpe campus in 1993, finally became a Wheeler, who for many years lived only a few blocksreality. With that move taking place shortly thereafter, a down the street on Wieuca Road. He purchased the housenew era began to unfold in the history of the Rho Delta from Atlanta real estate developer Charlie Ackerman, who had “This Old House,” continued on page 9

5 The Chakett Club Since my time joining Chi Phi, meeting and made with brothers, truly are for life. We look forwardtalking to the alumni has always been one of my favor- to seeing you all next spring at the 46th anniversary.ite things about the chapter. The wealth of knowledge, Fraternally,the amazing stories, and the incredible people that I Matthew Soucie, 5'’17have been able to meet and call my brother over the Zeta, Alumni Chairpast year and a half astonishes me. So when I found outthat the chapter did not have a strong, solid relationship Matthew Soucie , 5' ’17 & Keon Sims, 5' ‘16with our alumni, I knew that was something that Iwanted to assist in changing. In many ways, Rho Delta has made changes forthe better: our finances are stable, the chapter maintainsa high GPA standard and a commitment to quality gen-tlemen. However, we have neglected our alumni fortoo long. I believe that positive alumni relations is notonly what helps a chapter grow, but it is what makes achapter great. A good Scotch and Cigar alumni mixeris not enough; what we need is a newly revived Cha-kett Club, andthe return ofsome of thechapter’s finest.After manyyears, the Cha-kett Club is re-turning and justfrom the oldscrapbooks andnewsletters that Ihave read; I can-not personally Painted Crest in the Chapter Roomwait to take the next step in my service to Chi Phi aftermy time as an undergraduate, than with these gentle-men. Finally, it is my hope that this newsletter willreconnect many of the older alumni who have dis-tanced themselves from the chapter, as well as retain-ing the younger alumni. All of us joined Chi Phi for areason, in particular Rho Delta. Whether for a sense offamily, lifelong friendships, networking opportunitiesand so on, we are united in our love of the fraternity.My favorite thing to hear from the older alumni that Ihave met, is that this brotherhood and the connections

6 The Chakett Club many Alumni as we hosted the 25th Anniversary party in 1994. I met guys like Bob Jacobs (aka Mr. Majestic), Al Chonto, Kurt Phillips, and John Fittipaldi, just to name a few. I still keep in touch with some of these guys on so- cial media. I also began to think about what kind of im- pact it had on me as an active to be around these guysby Thomas J. Ison, 5'’96 who were obviously still a very tight band of brothers, Let me begin by saying hello to everyone out and how impressed I was at their response and their par-there in Alumni-land. I sincerely hope that life is treating ticipation in the 25th celebration.everyone well and I look forward to re-connecting withall of you soon. And that is what this article is all about: Presently, the Chapter is full of a great group ofAlumni involvement in the Rho Delta Chapter of Chi Phi. guys who are actively trying to build up better AlumniIt can be difficult relations through communication and events, and theyto put in the time deserve a lot of credit for that. Knowing this, it is im-and effort to bemore involved in portant that we, asthe Chapter due Alumni, do ourto, well, life. part. “Our Part”Families, careers, can be almost any-and the like tend thing: supplying theto eat up all the Chapter with ourtime we have mailing address,available to us. financial donations,However, there stopping by theare some of us house to share somewho are trying stories, and almostvery hard to get anything else youthe Chakett Club can imagine. Whenup and running I look back on myagain, and this time Rho Delta andnewsletter is only OU, I believe thatthe beginning of these efforts. one of the most im- portant things that I have been fortunate enough to spend a little time we Alumni can pro-at the Chapter house this year. The first time was this vide is a sense of history to the current Actives. Our his-summer after the Hall and Oates concert (yes, you read tory can give them a great sense of pride in what they arethat correctly). Chi Phi was the only Greek organization doing and it can give them the determination to maketo have people living in the house over the summer, something happen that we all know is already true: Thatwhich is a big change from how things used to be. The the Rho Delta Chapter of Chi Phi is the best damn chap-other time I got to spend some time there was at the for- ter around.mal Rush Dinner. On both of these occasions, the current What do we Alumni get out of it? Well, I wouldActives were friendly, engaging, and overall just a lot of think you already know the answer to that question. Wefun. It was kind of like going back home again as there get to re-connect with our Brothers, both new and old.were refreshments, stories, etc. I’ll refrain from includ- Most of us already know how much fun that is, and weing any of those stories here, for obvious reasons. Let’s also know how important it is. To just Be There makes ajust say all of us tend to have a lot of fun, and the current world of difference in both our lives and the lives of theActives are no exception. Actives. The fun we all have is just a bonus. Don’t be a stranger, and try to keep up with the Chakett Club. I be- All of this got me thinking about when I was an lieve great things are destined to happen.active and I had the privilege of meeting and befriending

7 The Chakett Club area of the house. The event included multiple games of Cornhole, Frisbee, Jenga, Water Pong, and a duck race game, along with a slide show of pictures from past years, showing of the scrapbooks, and TONS of delicious food. Our first Chi Phi open house event was a massive Game Night with a special alumni speech presented byby Edmund Smith, 5'‘15 - Recruitment Chair Alumnus Brother Mike WillisThe Rho Delta Chapter PD’95, on his experience in thesaw another strong fall fraternity. Our final formal din-recruitment this year. ner event was held at HudsonWith the efforts from Re- Grille in Brookhaven where wecruitment Chair Edmund shared our deeper connectionsSmith and the Recruit- with the Chi Phi fraternity. Thement Committee, along chapter was proud and honoredwith help from some of to have several alumni guestour Alumni, the chapter speakers, including: Mike Wil-was able to formulate a lis, PD’95, Jonathan Rawls,fun, strategic plan for rush PD’85, Travis Griffin, PD’06that could not only reach and Tommy Ison, PD’96, andout to a variety of differ- our faculty advisor, Dr. Brad-ent incoming men on ford Smith.campus, but also expandthe approach to actively At the end of a longrecruit men far greater recruitment, and successful new member education pro-than we have in prior gram, the Rho Delta Chapteryears. was proud to welcome eleven The overarching new Brothers into the Chapter.goal for this year was tobe more selective of who Bid Day 2014we chose to welcome into the chapter. We knew prior torush that we were a very diverse chapter comprised ofgreat leaders, scholars, philanthropists, and everything inbetween at Oglethorpe. For over 45 years we have madedistinct marks on campus. Despite this fact, we knew thatwith a growing number of fraternities also attempting toreveal their greatness and achieve the position we havereached, we would have to not only recruit harder, butknow how to recruit and who to recruit. We developed arecruitment seminar focusing on those two key aspects.At the end of the seminar, the main lesson learned wasthat to produce the best pledges and eventually the best The 2014 Newly Initiated Brothersbrothers, current brothers would have to start by From Left to Right:“Meeting them, making them their friends, introducing Christopher Schutez, Carson Fleischman, Alex Wilson, Dylanthem to their friends, and then Introducing them to ChiPhi.” Finally, “asking them to join” and ultimately be- Berresford, Alan Smith, Raines Greene, Patrick Gillespie,coming the Rho Delta that the Brothers wanted to see. Bryce Thomas, Colton Ryan and Elias Castro. At the all-fraternity open house event, Chi Phi Not Pictured: Skyler Stirlingcreated a carnival theme where we utilized every major

8 The Chakett ClubChapter Excellence Fund A Great Way agreed to head up this process and would like to invite to Give Responsibly, Revive Scholar- any alumni who would like to be involved to contact me at 205-242-6822 or [email protected]. ships for Undergraduate Brothers By David Pass, 5' ‘95In the days when ¿¿Remember When??our alumni group was moreactive, we raised a substan-tial amount of funds for un-dergraduate scholarships.These scholarships werenamed the Agel scholar-ships in honor of BrotherJohn Rick Agel, one of thefounding members of theChapter, whose significantdonation, along with annualgifts from a number ofalumni, helped to establishand sustain these funds. Rick Agel, 5' ‘72Each year, we awarded scholarships of $1,000 each to anoutstanding new member and outstanding undergraduateBrother. Applicants completed a questionnaire and theChakett Club officers awarded the scholarships through aFund at the national office.That fledgling fund still exists and is managed byThe Chi Phi Educational Trust. A few years ago, it wasconverted to what is called a Chapter ExcellenceFund. Today, it has a balance of $9,814. Each year, 5%of the fund is available for spending on scholarships orgrants for educational programs. Alumni must sign off onany requests for the money and the money must be re-quested by June 1. Any funds not spent as of June 30each year are rolled over to the total balance for the fol-lowing year, which begins July 1.For anyone who is looking for an end-of-year taxdeduction and who might want to donate to the fund,there are a few simple ways to do that. You can go towww.chiphicampaign.com/donate. You will see a ques-tion, \"I would like to support the following:\" followed bya drop down box. In that drop down box, you just need toselect “Rho Delta Chapter Excellence Fund” and thencomplete the form. You may also send a check to Chi PhiCampaign Office, PO Box 2207, Columbus, GA 31902with “Rho Delta CEF” in the memo.We have a great opportunity to revive this pro-gram and help worthy undergraduate Brothers. I have

9 The Chakett Clu3b “This Old House,” continued commodate the con- stant socializing thatowned the house for over thirty years. Then, enlisting the takes place at Chi Phi,help of the original architect of the house, who still had as well as constructionall the original plans and drawings of the house when it’s of a new fence to en-main structure was built in 1935, and further added to in close the back yard for1941, began an ambitious renovation plan which ran into more privacy.“the six figures.” Inside, The entire structure of the house was gutted and the study room wasreframed. The wiring, plumbing, and heating were re- refurbished and nowplaced. Most of the roofing trusses and ceilings were also provides a quiet areareplaced. A new stairway was added from the lower bed- for brothers and pledg-room into the basement, and the TV room was enlarged es to study or work onand opened to the big main bedroom (The “Blue Room”) the computer duringas part of the master bedroom, which now includes a deck the week. The universi- Josh Pruner, 5'‘16 and the New Fenceoverlooking the woods, and a Jacuzzi/hot tub. The kitch- ty remodeled the kitch-en was also entirely redone. The downstairs was further en and it now sports allopened up, but the enclosures to the lower porch installed new appliances and cabi-by Chi Phi around 1985 were kept. The garage was also nets. Through the generosity of Dave Pass, PD’96, sixcleaned out and the fireplace room opened up to the origi-nal stone walls. The last major project was a major land- new couches were ac-scaping renovation. quired for the chapter room and the brothers and Mr. Wheeler (No relation to Brother Dennis guests no longer have toWheeler, PD’76) worked on the project for over a year, contend with hand-me-and said it was a lot more than he expected. During the down furniture of all sortsrenovation, a lot of people stopped by to reminisce about and sizes. The foyer bath-coming to parties there during their college days. “It’s room was cleaned out andunbelievable how many people know about this house.” designated for the chap-He also said, because of the cost and length of the remod- ter’s female guests.eling project, he had to move in before completion, due to Looking forward,his other house closing, and the enormous cost of the ren-ovation project. the chapter is expecting But, he’s very happy the way it turned out. “I had additional renovationsto sheetrock the bedroom and kitchen, move in, and workon it as I could.” He remembered “back in the day when from the University alongwe used to have huge parties and cars would be lined upall along Wieuca Road” and thought, “I never thought I Brothers Admiring the New Flagpole with other projects by thewould end up living here. This is a piece of history.” Brothers to continue to FAST FORWARD TWO DECADES improve the house such as additional landscaping in the The current brothers of the Rho Delta chapter front and back,have been busy since early summer working on manyimprovements to the house. For the first time in many an improvedyears, the Brothers returned to live in the house over thesummer and in the process, slowly transformed the house DJ booth, andinto a home. Projects included a major re-work of thefront yard with walkways, mulching and benches to ac- more. Alumni who last visit- ed at the 45th Anniversary will be pleas- antly surprised the next time The Chapter House Awaiting the New Couches from they stop by! Dave Pass, 5' ‘95.

10 The Chakett Club Meet the Spring 2015 Executive CouncilFrom Left to Right:’Jason VanderHorst, 5' ‘17 - Eta’Joseph Johnson, 5' ‘17 - Gamma’Michael Rulison, 5' ‘16 - Epsilon’Matthew Soucie, 5' ‘17 - Zeta’Reid Cole, 5' ‘17 - Beta’Bradley Flagg, 5' ‘16 - Alpha’Andre Smith5' ‘16 - Delta We want to hear from you! Send your comments, questions, news & notes to [email protected] following alumni are “lost” from the National or University records – any information you can provide to us to re-establish contact will be greatly appreciated!We have no email or street address for these guys. Help us out!!Alan Aguirre, PD'14 Robert Findley, PD'14 Jason Richards, PD'14Ivan Annikov, PD'99 Randy Greer, PD'92 Mason Richey, PD'00Cary Aurand, PD'05 Kenny Hines, PD'88 Timothy Riner (Taylor), PD'00Michael BelleIsle, PD'74 Brad Isaacson, PD'97 David Sanders, PD'97George Brown, PD'76 Ronald Jones, PD76 Andrew Sherry, PD'90Jimmy Burke, PD'88 James Kaye (Kuchinski), PD'88 Noah Siclari ,PD'14Cristin Calle, PD'92 John Kontoghiorghes, PD'16 Matthew Smith, PD'99Robbie Capps, PD'14 Barrett Layman,PD'04 Lukas Strasser, PD'14Scott Christian, PD'03 Donald Macy, PD'80 Glenn Streidel, PD'77Austin Collier, PD'14 Robert McGee, PD'08 Forrester Vosburgh, PD'14Dario Commuzi, PD'86 Ronny Mercer, PD'72 Eric Weinman, PD'93Patrick Daniel, PD'90 Michael Mills, PD'82 Rickey Wilson, PD'93Patrick Dean, PD'87 Russell Montgomery, PD'83 Alvin Yarborough, PD'99Wesley Desselle, PD'92 James Nye, PD'87George Dippel, PD'84 Gabriel Peoples, PD'04Carlos Duque-Estrada, PD'88 Ronald Policella, PD'82Ryan Dykes, PD'08 Ryan Rees, PD'93Christopher Failing, PD'96 Michael Reeves, PD'00Jeff Farge, PD'98 Gerald Renoe, PD'92

11 The Chakett Club Rho Delta Chapter 46th Anniversary Weekend Tentative Event List Friday, April 17th – Sunday, April 19th Held In Conjunction With Oglethorpe University Alumni WeekendFriday 04/17:8 to 11 Pm Open House Reception at Chapter House Oglethorpe CampusSaturday 04/18: Alumni at Formal Banquet, 25th Anniversary 1994Morning Oglethorpe Alumni Weekend Events3 PM Meet at Chapter house for campus tour of new buildings3:45 PM Group photo of alumni at Chapter House4 PM – 6 PM Alumni Office Sponsored “Greek Block Party” on Greek Row.7 PM -10 PM Alumni Dinner, location TBA.10PM - Open House at the ChapterSunday 04/19:Morning Oglethorpe Alumni Weekend EventsAfternoon TBA Alumni interested in working with the Chakett Club administration, Election of officers for 2015-2016 Bob Jacobs, 5' ‘76 at 20th Anniversary20th Anniversary - 3 May 1989 25th Anniversary Banner

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION E-MAIL: [email protected] (Coming Soon): www.chakettclub.orgFACEBOOK GROUP (Coming Soon): Chakett Club THE CHAKETT CLUBThe Rho Delta Alumni Association P.O. Box 52997 Atlanta, GA 30355