Article by H. Keith Hellems, M.D. ’62 [email protected]
Thanks to Scott Hillen ’79 and his History of Michigan Delta Chi, we know that the Wedge Award was a yearly award first awarded at the end of the 1959-60 school year which was, “an honorary award given to the biggest tool of the year.” This award continued to about 1980, although George Holton ’86 won this in 1985. The Dork Award was first awarded in January 1960 as a weekly and yearly award recognizing a particularly brutal social faux pas. This award continued to about 1985. The social faux pas was never outlined in the minutes, so one has to use their imagination. Anyone reading this article could make us very happy by giving us their story for future eDelts.
I only have my own experience to tell my story. On May 22, 1959, wanting to be a good grandchild who never communicated much with relatives, I typed a long 4-page letter to my 67-year-old paternal grandmother who lived in Fairlea, WV.
Doing a genealogy project, I found the letter which she had saved. I have copied the portion of the letter that outlines what it takes for one to win the Dork of the Year Award and also the Wedge of the Year Award:
“This last weekend our fraternity (Delta Chi) had their pledge formal. But I shouldn’t have gone because of all the bad luck I had. To start off I spilt tomato juice on my tuxedo. Then a little later, I decided to go to the bathroom, so I started to move my chair back to get up and I hit a waitress behind me that had a platter full of dirty dishes. So, everything fell around me and some of it on me. At his point I was a little flustered as you might imagine. Then to top it off, when I was reaching for a towel to wipe off the mess of the food on me, I hit a glass of water in front and spilt that all over the front of me. About this time all my fraternity brothers and their dates started to think that this was very amusing, so they started to laugh and then gave me a big round of applause. After that, I didn’t eat anything (the dessert was the only thing left). After I got away from the table, I did have a good time, though. I guess that was because I was with Joyce (surprised to hear that we’ve been going together for about 16 months).”
She subsequently became my wife, and in 2022, we celebrated 60 years of marriage.
If you have a story about yourself or a Brother in the Bond, let me know.
