“I had a lot of very educational experiences during my days at Delta Chi,” he explains, “but not the kind taught in the classroom. It was a great life learning experience. We had a group from a diverse geographic, political, religious and socio-economic background. This was very important to me as I came from an all-male parochial high school education with not as much socio-economic and religious background diversity as was found at Delta Chi at that time. There was a good cross section of people and personalities from the studious to the partiers to the sports nuts to the quiet ones to the loud ones and so on. In those days, the chapter house was the focal point of the chapter, as most of us actually lived in the house, unlike the current status where only about 20-percent actually live in the chapter house. Living together as brothers was really what I think was very helpful to my transition from a teenager to an adult.”
John lived in the house from Thanksgiving of 1969 until he graduated with his MBA in April of 1975. During these years, he shared experiences with roommates Doug Shelton ’70, Alec Pridgeon ’72 and Joe Matt ’72. Some of his favorite memories include being tied to a door on his birthday and carried to his girlfriend’s sorority down Hill Street, some great pledge formals, scoring the first Delta Chi touchdown in four years as a freshman playing under an active’s name because pledges were not supposed to play for the fraternity and, one of the best, dinners with the cook John Russell after everyone else was done with dinner because lacrosse practice did not end until after dinner was served at the house. Then there is the story of a chapter-meeting prank on Mike Koziel ’73 that almost had him selling his motorcycle to avoid being sued by the Campus Inn for allegedly swinging from the chandelier at a pledge formal. Don’t forget the walnut fight from the brothers on the roof versus the brothers on the lawn with John scoring a direct hit on John Ashe Mardinly ’72.
Today, with his many yearly returns to Ann Arbor, John is able to stay in touch with Brothers Jeff Schoenerr, Dan Maher ’76, Steve Civiletto ’72, Doug Shelton, Frank Morrey ’64 and others on an infrequent basis.
After completing his MBA in corporate finance at UM in 1975, John became a financial analyst for Rockwell International’s Automotive Operations division in Troy, Mich. He stayed with Rockwell for more than seven years, leaving as controller of their plant in Battle Creek. He served for two years as the division controller for General Signal in Galesburg, Mich., and a little more than two years as the vice president of finance and administration for Production Tech & Trans Tech in Troy. He has now been with Rhetech, a HEXPOL company (and the founding family prior to that), in Whitmore Lake, Mich., for more than 20 years and has served as their president and CFO for the past eight years.
John has been married to Kathy (Kennedy) Levinson since May 27, 1977. Kathy is a former UM Chi Omega sister. John met her when Delta Chi stole ChiO’s composite and persuaded the sisters to attend a social mixer to get it back. Apparently the strategy worked. Kathy has an undergraduate degree and MBA from Michigan and is a retired tax partner for Plante Moran. In his free time, John enjoys golf, water skiing, cross-country skiing, volunteering for the Delta Chi Chapter at Michigan and, of course, Michigan sports.
