The national fraternity of Delta Chi shares a seasonal magazine for brothers of all chapters to enjoy. The publication includes stories of success, academics, athletics, culture, student life, and more! Check out the archive of the Delta Chi Quarterly, including the latest edition, here! 

Our reunion festivities began on Thursday with a round of golf at the UofM’s Blue Course. Dave Siglin ’64, Roger Premo ‘65, Chuck Aldrich ’66 and Frank Morrey ‘64 have played the course for the last 55 years and love to come back every year. On Friday Dan Maher ‘76, John Stinson ‘75, Dave Siglin ‘64 and Frank played Leslie Park and enjoyed another perfect autumnal day in Michigan.

Our Friday evening Pizza Party was well attended by several generations of Delta Chi alumni. In attendance were:

John and Jeanne Broad ’60, Keith Hellems ’62, Frank Morrey ’64, Roger and Mary Premo ‘65, Dale Bjorklund ‘67, Linn Petersen ’67, Dan Hughes ‘74, Paul Majchrzak ’75, Dan Maher ’76, John and Jennie Stinson ’75, Joe Gradisher with two guests ’79, Paul Luch ’88 and his wife, Joe Burchill ’81, Chris and Chrissy Bence ’10 with daughter and Adam and Natalie Davis ’12 with three sons. There were several actives who joined the festivities giving us the opportunity to get to know some of the brothers personally. They also managed to completely finish off the 12 large pizzas that were delivered. Both John Stinson and Chris Bence suppled a cooler filled with ice and soft drinks at their own expense. Paul contributed a pony keg of Labatt’s Blue at his own expense!! Our thanks go out to them.

Paul Luch attended with his wife, Dr. Carissa Luch, driving their 2021 Mini GP3. It is number 1193 out a 3000 made globally and with its 303 horsepower it can do 160 mph, a speed which Paul has not yet achieved. 

A very interesting event occurred that evening after we enjoyed our pizza and worked on emptying the pony keg. When we had arrived that evening at the dining hall, we found the brothers had not cleaned up their mess from dinner that evening, not surprising at all. Since this didn’t sit well with any of us, Dan Maher called out “Let’s clean up this mess!” At which time we collectively cleaned tables, put chairs on tables, swept the floor and John Stinson, among others, mopped the floor. It was as immaculate as a hospital ward. We said then, “This will make a statement”! Truthfully, I’m not sure it was noticed by the actives but we did make a statement nonetheless.

When we arrived Saturday morning we found that a neighbor’s tree had been struck by lightning, caught fire and toppled into our back yard. In fact, the fire department was still there putting out the fire.

We provided bagels, donuts, pretzel sticks and coffee that Saturday morning. In attendance were:

Keith Hellems ’62, Frank Morrey ’64, Dave Siglin ’64, Roger Premo ’65, Dan Maher ’76, Joe Burchill ’81 and Paul Luch and Dr. Carissa Luch. No actives joined us since our reunion coincided with parent’s weekend, but we were able to meet some of the actives and their parents.

Together we watched the Michigan Wolverines play another great game against the Maryland Terrapins at the Big House while we watched in comfort on the big screen at the chapter house. Keith Hellems has made an inventory of the composites we have saved and had those all displayed in the Library Room. We have composites dating back to the days of our founding in 1892. Plans are in progress to have these very old historic composites displayed in the public areas of the house. After the game several of us met for dinner at the rejuvenated Pretzel Bell downtown Ann Arbor, it was a wild night on Main Street.

Our reunion was attended by Delta Chi alumni representing several decades. The presence of younger alumni bodes well for the future of the DX alumni association, we look to them taking a greater role communicating with the alumni group going forward.

We hope to see you next year!!

As summer has come to a close, we would love to hear about your favorite summer adventures! Did you travel abroad with your family or make a trip back to campus to visit some old college buddies? Whether it was this summer or a summer 50 years ago — let us know your answer, and we will share it with your fellow alumni in our next communication! 

 

Do you have a favorite adventure photo or story to share? Tell us all about it! 

 

 

The undergraduate chapter recently took to Instagram to share an update for the start of the Fall 2022 semester! Here is what they had to say:

“The Brothers of Delta Chi are really enjoying their first day of classes. Here we can see Brothers Simon and Moskow after soaking in the information from class. Knowledge is power!”

Follow them on Instagram for more updates from the undergraduates!

Our fraternity has had a long and noteworthy past. Although many of us finished our new member education many years ago, we thought it was time to share a few more fun facts about the history of Delta Chi.  

• Delta Chi began as a professional law fraternity that would initiate brothers from general fraternities.
• There are over 120 chapters and colonies nationwide.
• Some prominent alumni of Delta Chi include: President Benjamin Harrison, musical artist Adam Levine, actor Ashton Kutcher, and football coach Jack Del Rio.
• Delta Chi fraternity is part of the top 40 oldest fraternities.

Interested in reading more? Check out the national fraternity’s history page here.

With the beginning of a new school year comes a new class of Delta Chi brothers. Needless to say, our brotherhood is constantly growing!   

Thanks to donations of both time and money by our brothers and alumni, we are able to keep the brotherhood strong throughout the years. We have put together a list of benefits that brothers, current and future, are able to enjoy when we choose to give back.  

1. Networking: Fraternities have the ability to form connections like no other group. With members of all ages and stages of life, there is always a brother with the knowledge needed to help in any situation. A good chapter always keeps in touch with their alumni. 
2. Lifelong Friends: Not only are they able to help, but brothers are able to form a special bond through shared traditions. After countless professional and social events spent together, connections like these are often strong enough to last a lifetime.  
3. Professional Skills: Not only does the fraternity help us form bonds, but it teaches us vital skills that will be crucial to future career success. Many alumni site these skills as their top reason for giving back to the fraternity!  
4. Social Events: No matter how old you are, revisiting the old ‘stomping grounds’ to meet up with your old college buddies is always a good time! With the University of Michigan Chapter, there will always be a group back at the University of Michigan to visit. Whether it be homecoming, a football game, or an alumni reunion, our own alumni and brothers are present.  

It is time we thank the fraternity for all it has done for us. We give so that future generations can experience the same great benefits of brotherhood!  

With the semester beginning this month, it is the perfect time to plan a trip back to Ann Arbor with some old college buddies! Here are some tips for planning the perfect Delta Chi weekend: 

FRIENDS: Wondering where your old college buddies are now? Head to the directory page to reconnect and relive the old days!  

FOOD and DRINKS: Ann Arbor is always changing. Whether or not our old favorite restaurant or bar is still in town, here are a few that have some of the best food and drinks now! 

• Ashley’s Restaurant
• Hopcat
• Nightcap
• Lo-Fi
• Root

FUN: Fall semester means football is back in-season! Check out the fall football schedule here, and don’t forget about homecoming on September 24th either! 

Planning a get-together? CLICK HERE to let us know, so we can share it in our next e-letter! 

It is no secret that being part of a group like Delta Chi is impactful throughout the remainder of our lives. We have heard from our brothers about the influence that the University of Michigan Chapter has had on our futures, but what happens when we give back? This is what your brothers have to say about the benefits of giving back: 

“More people would be able to experience the opportunity to be a part of the brotherhood and have a deeper, richer experience while in the brotherhood. I cannot possibly give back as much as I received from the fraternity.” – Don Sweeney ‘92

Fuger says that giving back is critical for him. “It’s the right thing to do and the youth of today are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.” – Jim Fuger ‘82

“Every parent wants their child to have access to more resources and experiences than they did, and the same concept applied to fraternity alumni and the chapter. It’s that simple.” – Joseph Burak ‘98

The Michigan Chapter of Delta Chi will be hosting this year’s annual reunion on the Michigan Homecoming weekend, September 23-25, 2022. Michigan will be facing the Maryland Terrapins in the Big House, kick-off is at 12 noon.

Friday Night: Alumni, actives and their guests are invited to join us for a pizza party at the new chapter house from 6 PM to 10 PM or later. Pizza and soft drinks will be provided. (Donations are gladly accepted to help defray the cost. Please RSVP here). This event will be an informal gathering, a chance to meet the current actives and reconnect with your classmates. These get-togethers have proven popular and well attended in years past.

Saturday Festivities: Coffee and donuts will be provided at the chapter house at 10 AM for those who want to hike or drive the Big House and watch the Wolverines squish the Terrapins. Other alumni, actives and guests are encouraged to enjoy the game on large-screen TVs in the chapter house. Following the game, please return to the chapter house for happy hour (BYOB) and to plan your evening’s activities which may include joining brothers from your era for dinner in Ann Arbor at a local restaurant, for example, Metzger’s or the rejuvenated Pretzel Bell. 

Football Tickets: Football tickets should be available this year. Please let us know as soon as possible to hopefully acquire a block of tickets. (If you wish to purchase tickets, please advise Frank Morrey, at [email protected] or Keith Hellems at [email protected].)

Recommended Lodging: We still have several rooms available at the Comfort Inn in nearby Chelsea for an unbelievably low rate of $115/night, try to match that at any hotel in Ann Arbor! These rooms can only be held until September 10. So please make your reservations soon by calling 734-433-8000 and referencing “Delta Chi Fraternity Alumni”.

Sunday Morning: We will play golf at UofM’s Blue Course, weather permitting. Morning tee times are planned, so our out-of-town brothers can catch an airplane back home.

We look forward to having fellow brothers and their guests visit the chapter house. The chapter’s alumni association continues to improve the new chapter house for the actives, as well as make it a place for its alums to come back to. Through the generous donations of alumni, we have added picnic tables to the back deck and greatly boosted the WIFI signal within the house. Both of these enhancements proved critical during the pandemic. We are also creating a Wall of History and Heritage. It’s a collection of composites that will allow you to “see yourself” in YOUR new house whenever you come back to Ann Arbor. More later on this project.

Homecoming is exactly that at Delta Chi. It is a chance to return to 1705 Hill Street and engage again with fellow brothers. Hope to see you there!

Please contact Frank Morrey ’64 at [email protected] for more details.

In the Bond,

The Delta Chi Alumni Association

 

The Michigan Delta Chi fraternity has had three starts in its long history – originally in 1892 and then in 1948 and most recently in 2006.   In 1892, it was founded as the 2^nd chapter of Delta Chi and was a legal fraternity.   The Chapter thrived for many years and at some point, became a Social Fraternity as opposed to a legal fraternity. 

In 1934, when the Chapter was located at State and Hill Street on the northeast corner, ceased to exist due to the depression and the inability to recruit members and “pay the bills”.  Where the Chapter house was is now the Gerald R. Ford Public Policy Building.  When the old Chapter house was being torn down, Jeff Schoenherr ’91 (President of the Delta Chi Alumni Corporation) was working for the University of Michigan and was able to get permission to remove and keep the cornerstone of the old Chapter House.  Do any of you know where that cornerstone is today?  The answer will be at the end of this article.

Also, of interest is that the last president of the Chapter in 1934 was Wilbur Nelson.  That name will possibly be familiar to some of the older alumni as he was later a Professor of Aeronautical Space Engineering and the Chairman of that department at the University of Michigan for many years. Wilbur Nelson served the Chapter in many ways after his graduation and was a prime example for future Delta Chi Alumni to contribute to the Chapter by serving as Faculty Advisor for the Chapter. 

However, the most important service that Wilbur did for Delta Chi at Michigan was to restore the Chapter on campus in 1948.  He, along with the help of Henry deKoning, a local Ann Arbor builder, were the some of the group that found and purchased of the old Chapter House at 1705 Hill Street property.  This was the second coming of Delta Chi to the University of Michigan

Another prominent person that aided with this resurrection of the Michigan Chapter of Delta Chi was Joe Lacchia.   Unfortunately for some of us, he was from our Delta Chi Chapter Michigan State University and he never let some of us forget how much “bigger and better” a Chapter that Delta Chi had at MSU.  It was fortunate that Joe had a strong financial situation with the MSU Chapter and was well connected with National Delta Chi.  These two items were very helpful when restarting a Chapter that had no assets and no members.  Joe was able to work out an arrangement where the Michigan State University Housing Corporation made the initial down payment to buy Professor Hobbs property at 1705 Hill Street in 1948.  The MSU Building Corporation then held the mortgage on the 170 Hill Street property for 8 years while the Michigan chapter reduced the debt two-thirds over eight years.   At that point the Chapter was well established and was able to get a new mortgage with Ann Arbor Trust Company in 1953.  This new mortgage also allowed for the repayment of the expenses incurred by Henry DeKoning in 1948 to allow the residential house be converted into a Fraternity style boarding house. 

In approximately 1956, the property title was finally transferred to the Michigan Delta Chi Building Corporation.   The mortgage with Ann Arbor Bank & Trust continued on until the late 1970’s or early 1980’s when we finally had a mortgage burning party that was well attended by local Delta Chi alumni.

The return of Delta Chi to the Michigan campus was the first of the chapters that were dissolved during the depression and then reactivated after World War II.   There were 37 brothers and pledges that took part in the installation banquet at the Michigan Union on February 14, 1948 as charter members.   Included in this group was a Navy war veteran that was certainly a prime example of that era.  His name was Harold Gibbons, class of 1950.  We have recently been informed of his passing this year and we have published his obituary below.  It is our best belief that Harold (Hal) was the last surviving member of this group.   If any alumni have any different information on any surviving member of this chartering group, please contact Keith Hellems at (email or phone or both).

Obituary for Harold M. Gibbons ’50

On February 4, 2021 while residing at Benchmark Senior Living in Norwood, MA. Hal Gibbons was born in Los Angeles, CA on May 5th, 1926. His parents, Herb and Pearl, had three children: Vivian, Hal, and Coloma. When Hal was eight years old, his family moved to Dearborn, MI in a Model T with all their belongings inside and strapped to the running boards. They moved to Michigan to be closer to his Aunt and Uncle. Hal’s Uncle trained Hal’s Dad to be an auto mechanic and set Herb up with his own auto shop in Michigan. Hal enjoyed helping his father work on cars. Hal was eighteen when he joined the Navy and served from 1944 – 1946. Hal married the love of his life, Joyce. Hal and Joyce were married on June 16, 1951 and enjoyed sixty-eight years of marital bliss. Hal and Joyce traveled the world together and lived in a beautiful home. Hal got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Engineering from the University of Michigan. Hal was an engineer at General Dynamics working in communications technology. Hal and Joyce lived in Medfield, MA and were loved by their many wonderful neighbors. They moved to Benchmark Senior Living in Norwood several years ago to enjoy all the activities and social functions that the assisted living facility provided. Hal and Joyce were devoted members of the United Church of Christ. Hal has had an incredible and successful life full of great memories. A small prayer service at the cemetery is being planned and will be announced on this website.

To start with, it’s important to note that, in those days, it was incredibly cheap to go to college. Tuition and books were a couple hundred dollars a year, which the Veteran’s Administration paid (my father was killed in WW2). Counting undergrad and grad school, I went to college for 14 years and finished nearly debt-free – impossible in today’s world.

I came to UM in the fall of 1960 as a music education major from an all-boys catholic, college prep school and was clearly unprepared for the large university experience, although I had enrolled at UM the previous summer and had taken 15 credit hours in physical education. The bright spots of my fall semester were learning to play the guitar and being one of thousands of students on the steps of the Michigan Union when JFK gave his “Ask not what your country can do for you” speech. Majoring in violin was definitely not one of the bright spots (if you want to be good, you’re supposed to practice between 35 and 70 hours a week; I practiced about 70 minutes a week) and I switched to clarinet at the end of the first semester.

I pledged Delta Chi in the spring of 1961. Our pledge class became quite close, thanks to our pledge-master, Lane Kendig ’62, whose leadership style, I’m certain, was later used as inspiration for the TV series “American Horror Story.” He did mold us into the tight-knit group which, at one point, discussed tossing him into the 10-foot hole he had us dig (to repair a crack in the basement wall) and then filling it up, but came to the group decision that the action would be morally bankrupt. Things that we learned as pledges:

(1): Eight people smoking in a phone booth is worse than trying to breathe the air in Los Angeles or running behind a bus. And

(2): People working together and supporting each other can actually accomplish real goals. Who woulda thunk it?

During my first year in the house, Bob Todd, Dave Huggett ’64, and I were in the “fireplace room”, a room large enough for three humans, three desks, and, as we demonstrated in the spring, a large vat in which we made corn wine. The wine would have been a huge success but for the fact that none of us knew how to stop the fermentation process, resulting in hundreds of inebriated bees battering themselves to death on our walls. We finally poured it out of the window and the remaining bees followed it out into the yard where they partied in a drunken reverie for several weeks while we were inside listening to recordings of Ray Charles singing “Hit the Road, Jack.” Meanwhile I continued practicing guitar (ever try meeting girls at a party by playing a violin or a clarinet? Don’t bother). 

My second year in the house I roomed with Mike Kennedy ’63, a senior, in a room in the basement. Michael was from Escanaba, a town in the Upper Peninsula, where, as he said, there was a bar every 100 feet. We tried to duplicate the feel of his hometown. Our room had a hinged bookshelf inset into a wall, hiding a liquor cabinet. Which we continually restocked. At some point I got mono and the UM Health Service gave me Benzedrine to pick up my energy level. After I recovered, I still had half a bottle of the pills. There was a ping pong table in the house basement and Mike and I would each pop one or two of the pills and play with reaction times you could only dream about.

Somewhere in there I was the “E” and the social director. I have no idea if I distinguished myself at either, but I can take a good guess.

I spent about one percent as much time studying as I spent playing bridge with Tim Curtin ’64, Jim Richhart ’64, Howie Gandelot ’64, Mike McGuire ’65, and various other ne’er-do-wells (including a grad student from the Cornell DX chapter who had a glass eye and would remove it for good luck when we were mired in a losing streak). I also spent as much time playing guitar, playing intramural sports, and skipping classes (sometimes entire courses). My second semester junior year I switched my major from music to English, cut almost all my classes, and dropped out right before finals, taking incompletes in everything. At the end of the summer I went off to California to become a famous folksinger, didn’t, but had many adventures, and starved.

The following year I came back and went to EMU as a Psych major. I lived in an apartment at 802 Oakland (the corner of Oakland and Hill) with Jim Richhart ’64, Jim House, and a friend of theirs. By this time I was putting myself through school by working a meal job and teaching guitar lessons (group lessons, 2 hrs each, 8 students per group @ $5 apiece, 3 groups a week, giving me $120 a week for 6 hours of work – not bad in 1964). I remember once, when I needed a haircut, Jim H told me he could do it. I said “Great”, and Jim, several sheets to the wind, proceeded. Halfway through, I heard him chuckle and say, “Hmmm”. I asked him if there was a problem and he said “No, It just needs to be evened up a little”. He had accidentally cut a bald spot in the back right and then evened it up by cutting another one on the back left. Always make sure your barber is sober but, hey, something can be said for symmetry.

I focused a little more on my studies but, for some reason that fall, I cut almost all my Abnormal Psych lectures including the midterm. Realizing, two weeks before finals, that I was about to fail the class, I outlined the entire course book in two spiral notebooks. I took the final and got a 100%. The prof told me that, if I audited the course the next semester, he’d give me an “A”; if not, an “F”. I opted for the “A”. And then switched into theater for the fall semester of 1965.

That fall of ‘65, I lived in a house on Division with Bob Todd, three other theater students, and the girl that I sang with. I got a small inheritance from my grandparents of $8,000, so I got a $1,000 bill (they existed then) and went to Herb David’s Guitar Studios on State St, slapped it down on the counter, and got a 6-string Martin D28 and a 12-string Guild F312 guitar and $5 change. Thinking the $8,000 would last forever, my housemates and I would get lots of wine several times a week and do improvs (think Saturday Night Live) into the wee hours.  In November, while rehearsing the role of El Gallo in The Fantasticks, I met the love of my life, Linda. One week after meeting her, while we wolfed down a romantic dinner at the Big Boy, I asked, “You want to get married?” to which she replied, “Sure.” We waited until January 8 to tie the knot because we were mature.

I got a job teaching guitar and working the counter at Herb David’s Guitar Studio, and our daughter, Anya, was born in 1967. In the late fall of 1968, I was offered a job running The Ark, a local folk music club. The club was on the first floor of a three-story house and we lived on the second floor. Meanwhile, I graduated in 1967 and got my masters in Playwriting and Directing in 1974, maintaining a 3.9 grade point average for those last nine years. We expected to run The Ark until I finished my masters, but we fell in love with it and never left. And it was a great decision.

I ran The Ark for 40 years as it moved from 1421 Hill to 637 S. Main and then to 316 S. Main where it seats over 400. By the time I retired in 2008, it was annually presenting over 300 shows a year featuring folk, blues, bluegrass, country, jazz, pop, rock, world music, comedy, and storytelling from all over the world. It’s doing better than ever now, with my daughter booking it.

During my time at The Ark, I also coached youth baseball and an adult women’s softball team that won a slew of City Championships, one Class B State and two Class A State Championships. As soon as I retired from The Ark, I got a job coaching the Pioneer freshman baseball team for a year and then worked with the Michigan Sports Academy for several more.

With the pandemic shutting everything down, I’ve had plenty of time to write a book about baseball – Baseball’s Best: Comparing Over 1000 Players In Their Primes, 1893-2019, analyzing players’ defense, offense, and pitching in their primes (as the title says), regressing them based on when they played and the size of the available talent pool, and then comparing them. You can get it on Amazon if you’re interested baseball and want to know who might have been better than Babe Ruth and Willie Mays.

I have kept in touch and am good friends with several of the brothers these past 50+ years and will readily attest to the fact that being a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity was certainly one of the best and most important decisions of my entire life.

What can one take away from my experiences?

Well, first of all, Delta Chi clearly didn’t get me to study. Why? Because, no matter how much I admired those fields, I believe I knew deep down I couldn’t spend the rest of my life in any of them. When I switched into theater, I knew it was right. Or so I thought until after several years of running The Ark. As the old saying goes, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”

Second, Delta Chi more than helped me develop the social and interpersonal skills to function in the real world. I truly believe that, without that, very little that happened later in my life would have happened. Had it not been for Delta Chi, that proposal at the Big Boy probably would have taken a different turn: “Linda, will you make me the happiest man on earth? Will you marry me?”

“Don’t talk with food in your mouth. In your dreams. God, are you a loser.”

–David Siglin ’64   [email protected]

 

In our monthly eDelt over the last few years, we’ve been providing updates from many Alumni, and articles from and about many of our Alumni Brothers. We’ve also tried to keep you updated on the various aspects of turning the “new” house at 1705 Hill St. into a home for all Delta Chis, past and present, by highlighting the History and Heritage Wall of Composites, the acquisition of picnic tables, and the updating of the wireless capabilities, among other activities.

Admittedly, we’ve fallen short in one area… providing updates from the current brothers and giving you an idea of what life is like in the house.

We’ve recently received some inputs from the Brothers, and wanted to share what we’ve learned with you.

Michigan Delta Chi is the largest Fraternity on Campus

In a far cry from the days of life in the old house, when we counted the 20 (+/-) brothers who live at 1705 Hill as the entire active chapter population, today’s Michigan Delta Chi Chapter has over 100 total active members. Of that total, we have a full house, with 34, living there.

To give you an idea of the growth, the latest list of new associates (pledges in the old vernacular) includes 26 students!

And the chapter is happy to report that the groups is made up of students from across the country. The states represented include Michigan (1), California (2), Connecticut (1), Florida (4), Illinois (1), Indiana (1), Maryland (1), Massachusetts (1), New York (12)), and New Jersey (2). The New England area is well represented!

Life in the House

The Delta Chi house, like most other fraternities/sororities these days, have moved on from the more traditional aspects of house life, including having live-in cooks like our fondly remembered long-time cook, John Henry Russell.

They’ve contracted with “Gill Grilling,” a Maryland-based company that bills itself as “the premier provider of meal service and kitchen management to Fraternities and Sororities across the country.”

The brothers receive breakfast/lunch and can order eggs, pancakes, a sandwich, salad, quesadilla, etc. And they can choose any time from 11 am to 2 pm to receive their food.

Dinner is a scheduled menu and the brothers can choose any time from 6-7 to receive dinner.

As we learned, many a bond is formed over dinners together. Today’s group enjoys eating together and watching sports at around 6:30 each evening. The brothers have also gone on lots of group dinners together to Pizza House, Ichiban and other places.

Additionally, as many of us did during our time in A2, they’ve found ways to make the house their own, most notably by making a small gym in the laundry room that is both useful and convenient for the brotherhood.

 

Sports/Social/Charitable events

Camaraderie and Brotherhood are also strengthened by their involvement in Campus sports/social/charitable endeavors:

• They’ve started a fraternity basketball league.
• They are participating in a flag football tournament for a club called Go Blue Wear Pink. Go Blue Wear Pink is a student-run organization at the University of Michigan that raises money to fund
• breast cancer research at the U-M Rogel Cancer Center. Since 2007, students have raised over $360,000 to accelerate groundbreaking research at one of the nation’s leading cancer research centers.
• They’ve also continued a long-standing Michigan Delta Chi tradition of supporting the Jimmy V Foundation, this year by participating in a Bracket Challenge. Since its formation in 1993 by ESPN and legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano, the V Foundation for Cancer Research has awarded nearly $290 million in cancer research grants nationwide with one goal in mind: to achieve Victory Over Cancer.
• They hosted a successful Parents Weekend, where many parents got to meet each other and see their students on Campus, something they couldn’t do last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
• Building on that success, they are planning Mom and Dad weekends for February and March.
• And finally, the brothers have introduced a bouncy house at tailgates that they’ve found to be very fun.

Strengthening and Building the Brotherhood

As we all found out when we attended Michigan and lived at Delta Chi, The Bond we formed takes work within the Chapter to foster and grow.

Today’s Brothers continue to contribute to that effort by:

• Adding a Scholarship Chair and a Brother Development Chair to the chapter leadership team. Neither of these will be a part of the eBoard, but separate committees.
• Implementing “F-talks”, where the F highlights key elements to the risk management policies of Delta Chi.
• Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion. A group of brothers attended a screening of a movie about the relationship of the Black community and Jewish community. One of those Brothers was quoted in the Michigan Daily about the experience.

So there you have it… a snapshot of the Life of the Men of the Michigan Delta Chapter in the 2021-2022 school year.

As we all learned, college is more than just the classes and studying.

Just as we did in our days, today’s Delta Chis are making the most of their time together at Michigan… and in the House at 1705 Hill St.

The Bond of Brotherhood remains strong.

In the Bond,

Joe Gradisher ‘79

 

 

New Associate Members

Jacob Burstein- Westchester, NY

Daniel Dimarco- Miami, FL

Jake Ferraro- Weston, CT

Ethan Finestone- San Francisco, CA

Justin Gordon- Armonk, NY

Reed Hakim- Harrison, NY

Ethan Josefsberg- Miami, FL

Hayden Katz- Deerfield, IL

Trey Leuchter- Scarsdale, NY

Elan Lukin- Miami, FL

Ethan Lulkin- Birmingham, MI

Matthew Jedwab- Long Island, NY

Aidan Neidoff- Boca Raton, FL

August Neubauer- Newport Beach, CA

Damola Olaiaya- South Bend, IN

Jonah Ostroff- Baltimore, MD

Niki Papaioannou- NJ

Levi Ring- Scarsdale, NY

Aaron Rubin- Dix Hills, NY

Sam Ross- Boston, MA

Max Schrader- New York City, NY

Jared Shiffman- North Jersey, NJ

Alec Tabs- North Cardwell, NY

Isaac Turofsky- Great Neck, NY

Jake Wollman- Bedford, NY

Noah Weber- Scarsdale, NY

1705 Hill Street – Mortgage 3.0, by John (1973 & 1975) and Dave (1975 & 1977) Levinson (and a few other Editors for which we especially acknowledge Howard Gandelot)

First a little history on the mortgage(s) for 1705 Hill Street.  When the Chapter was recolonized after World War II, there were no physical assets to start the process.  The old house (State and Hill Street location, now the Gerald R. Ford Public Policy building) was lost in the depression – likely due to being unable to pay the mortgage.  That fact alone would have made for a very difficult effort to get a new mortgage.  Then adding to that – there were no Brothers, it was after World War II – WOW, to get that mortgage and the new Chapter House took some real effort and devotion. 

In addition, to get a new Chapter House, some of the people that helped bring Delta Chi Michigan back to life had to pledge their own money (a personal guaranty) to get a mortgage to purchase the property at 1705 Hill Street for $38,150 and a $14,000 down payment (REAL MONEY in those days)!  Also, it was ironic that the 1705 Hill Street U of M Delta Chi Chapter House was purchased by the Michigan State University Delta Chi Housing Corporation.  It was then rented to our Chapter for $5,000 per year with the understanding that the Chapter would get a mortgage and purchase the house from the MSU Delta Chi Housing Corporation. 

We all owe a large debt of gratitude to former members/friends like Wilbur Nelson, Henry DeKonig and Joe Lacchia MSU Delta Chi that found a way to get mortgage 1.0 for the 1705 Hill Street purchase.  Joe Lacchia was at times really annoying and always talking about how the Delta Chi Michigan State Chapter was so superior to the Delta Chi Chapter at the University of Michigan – the little brother syndrome existed long before Mike Hart’s famous comments about the status of MSU football versus Michigan football.  However, without a doubt, we needed their (MSU Delta Chi) assistance at that time.  The constant comparisons were very hard to take 20+ years later when he would come to Housing Corporation meetings and berate our lack of size and stature on campus.

At this time, I do not have much more fact- based history to share on Mortgage 1.0, except to say that we had “one hell of a mortgage burning party” sometime during my time at Delta Chi.  The best some of us can remember is that the party was in the spring of 1974 as most mortgages were 25 years in length after World War II.  Maybe some other alumni will read this and give us the date or as the author has no memory of that party (wonder why??).

During the 80’s, 90’s and in the early 00’s, we did not have the monthly burden of a mortgage to pay each month.  We had to pay the property taxes, property insurance and repairs (oh those repairs!!).  Sounds like an easy process, collect a little rent and then pay the insurance and property taxes and hire a few contractors to make some repairs.  How much damage could 20-25 Brothers do each year to a house that was built as a residence in the early 1900s!!  Well let me tell you, IT WAS A LOT.  Two new roofs, three times doing the shower room over as a result of leaks from all the horseplay that went on, new fire doors, a complete new inner set of walls in the 2^nd floor landing (fire code rules), foundation repairs, kitchen redo, gutter repairs, electrical box upgrades for parts of the old house (we took out nob & tube electrical and replaced that with fuse boxes and finally circuit breakers for any of you electrical engineers – just to name a few. 

The other major issue was getting property insurance for a fraternity house – NEVER an easy task.  I had taken insurance classes at Ross Business school from Dr. Miller (the Business School was not called Ross in those days), so I was considered an expert.  HA, what you learn in classes is everything but the practical things you really needed to know in reality.  Sound familiar?  Therefore, I was added to the Housing Corporation after getting my MBA and was told, JUST DO IT (long before NIKE claimed that slogan – thanks Duncan).    I digress – do they even still offer insurance classes at Ross?

Delta Chi had a good relationship with Dobson/McComber – one of the leading insurance brokers in town.  For many years, through their relationships with some insurance carriers we were always able to buy insurance even though the house was old and there was no fire sprinkler system.  Near the end, we finally were shopping with Lloyd’s of London, the insurance company of last resort!  I really learned about insurance by doing the job assigned to me by the Housing Corporation – boy did I learn.  Also, as most know, to have a mortgage – you have to have property insurance, so this would prove to be valuable training later when we designed the new Chapter house.

Now skipping ahead to the modern days and Mortgage 2.0 – when we designed the new house, we used all that I had learned about fraternity house insurance to make sure that we would not have trouble purchasing insurance like I had over the previous 40+ years.  Things like a sprinkler system, multiple egress (think the east and west stairwells), windows in every sleeping area and even in the basement (party room), concrete floors, security cameras, plastic plumbing lines, metal framing instead of wood – all of these were incorporated to make sure that we were an attractive insurance client.  We were going to have to have property insurance because we were going to need a mortgage.  Even with the major and very successful fund-raising campaign carried out by the Four Horsemen (of Delta Chi, not ND – see below), we were going to need a large mortgage for many years after building the new CLUBHOUSE as David Falconer usually called it.

Mortgage 2.0 – The restart of the Chapter (after it went off campus in the middle 2007 time) was very successful.  Once again, a GREAT THANKS to the Founding Fathers of that time and all the alumni that assisted or we could have just gone the way of the depression era Chapter.  HOWEVER, with all that success on re-establishing the Chapter – the old Chapter House was beyond economical repair (a technical term for all us finance guys). 

In addition, the old design/layout did not meet the needs/likes of the new generation of Delta Chis.  Things like the group shower room, the lack of separate sleeping rooms, just the lack of modern amenities, the foundation, etc. were either not desirable or just functionally obsolete.  Finally, the Housing Corporation was sick and tired of spending good money over and over on the same things and never seeing the end.  The fact that we had only amassed about $60K in cash was a testament to how many repairs there were to deal with.  However, a new house was going to be millions of dollars and no one was going to give us a $2-3M mortgage to tear down the old house and build a new one.  We needed more equity to get Mortgage 2.0.

Luckily for us, a group of senior alumni were willing, capable and dedicated to leaving a new legacy for the future Delta Chi Chapter at Michigan.  I nicknamed them the Four Horsemen (Howard Gandelot, David Falconer, Frank Morrey and Keith Hellems). Those guys were like those heroes of ND football.  They were very Talented, Devoted, Energetic, etc.  They were eager and willing to put their time and treasure to work to preserve Delta Chi for another 50 years.  Those guys had many fond memories from that old house, but we all knew that it was the fraternity that we actually loved and cared for, not a house. 

The Four Horsemen were able to raise $1 MILLION DOLLARS from less than 400 living alumni and that would make the bank sit up and take notice.  Therefore, off we went on this incredible journey that took down the old house, designed and built the new house and moved onto Mortgage 2.0.  It was certainly miraculous what was done in 1948 but no less miraculous as to what the Founding Fathers, the Four Horsemen (and the helpers who also saw the vision and gave their treasure) others were able to accomplish with this undertaking.  Now Delta Chi has the largest and most successful Fraternity on the Michigan Campus (take that Little Brother in East Lansing).

The completion of the new Chapter House was not without problems.  The active chapter had to find a place to live during the construction, we ran into asbestos problems with the tear down of the old house (we never did find the urban legend motorcycle during the excavation process), getting all the City of Ann Arbor approvals (talk about an uphill battle), the huge increase in costs from the time of the design estimate to completion (starting budget with contingency of 10% – $2.5M – final result of $3.5M two years later), a lawsuit with one of the subcontractors, a temporary Certificate of Occupancy obtained on move in day of August 25, 2016 and probably a whole lot more that I wanted to forget and have done so.

As we progressed through all those trials and tribulations, we had the Construction Mortgage to pay the contractors as the “Clubhouse” was being built.  We had to beg the bank several times as the costs would go from $2.5M to the eventual $3.5M final number.  Of course, if you are familiar with this process, the real challenge is then to get Mortgage 2.0 after you have completely blown your Budget and Creditability. 

After all the problems discussed above, the number of banks that were left to choose from for Mortgage 2.0, was ONE – the Bank of Ann Arbor.  No other bank would talk to us due to the large over budget result.  This is despite the fact that our new Chapter House was the envy of every Greek organization on campus.

As luck would have it (literally), the Manger of the mortgage group at Bank of Ann Arbor wanted to meet me at their offices to discuss this problem.  It turns out that he was the back-up goalie for the University of Michigan Lacrosse team that I played with for four years when in the Fraternity.  We renewed our acquaintance for the first time since 1974.  I then suggested that we tour the now ½ finished chapter house.  After taking the tour, he was completely enamored with the design and all the features that we had incorporated into the new house.  That tour cemented the deal and we then completed Mortgage 2.0 in December 2016.  The mortgage was more expensive than we hoped, but still, we had a non-recourse (no personal guarantees by anyone like the guys in 1948 had to do).  The new mortgage was for five years and had a fixed rate of 5.29% – pretty decent when looking at how we over shot the budget by ONE MILLION DOLLARS on a $2.5 million base!!

Well, let the good times roll as they say and we fast forward to 2021.  The Chapter is thriving – even during the PANDEMIC.  It is the largest fraternity on campus.  The functionality of the house has been excellent – except for the drop ceiling in the basement that members keep destroying each year (and then having to pay to have it fixed).  We have been filled to capacity for 9 of the 10 semesters since opening.  There have been very little repairs to pay for.  The insurance companies love our business now.  We generated only a small amount of cash ($15K) over five years due to the larger mortgage costs.  In summary, life has been very good and then five years is upon us and we have to do MORTGAGE 3.0.

The 2021 timing seemed to be good – interest rates were low (but soon to grow much higher – at least in my view).  We had good financials, just a little strained on the cash flow but nothing we could not handle.  The bad thing is that we are still a fraternity house and there has been a lot of bad press about fraternities in the last few years. 

So, we started the process early in the spring of 2021.  We wanted to get a lower interest rate, a fixed rate for at least five years, NO RECOURSE (no personal guarantees), roll the closing costs into the mortgage – all of which seemed very reasonable.  We started with Bank of Ann Arbor and had the wind knocked out of our sails with their unsatisfactory offer.  We pushed back and they did not budge.  That is when we went to find other alternatives. 

Thankfully, my sibling and fraternity brother (Dave – ’75 & ’77) had spent most of his career in the real estate financing industry.  He was recently retired but still had LOTS of connections.

We quickly found new financing interested parties through a mortgage broker type firm that Dave used to work for.  We provided financial statements, tax returns, etc. and soon we found that we were not being unrealistic in our original goals that we started with.  Long story short – we found a written offer that was pretty close to our original targets.  With my new-found baseball bat/commitment letter, I went back to Bank of Ann Arbor and stated – you helped us when we needed it, so we are giving you one last chance to keep our business.

In an ironic twist of fate, my old lacrosse teammate had retired but the new “Manager” was someone that Dave Levinson had worked with and kind of mentored long before he ever came to work for Bank of Ann Arbor.  It turns out that they did like our business and wanted to match to offer.  At this point, I extracted one final interest rate pound of flesh to seal the final deal.  In short, we have a 7-year fixed rate mortgage with a balloon payment at the end.  The interest rate is 3.99% and the closing costs were all rolled into the new mortgage.  The total amount of the mortgage was a little over $2.2M and our payment dropped from approximately $17.7K per month to $13.5K per month.

I think we will all look back in a couple of years and be very happy that we made a very good deal.  However, when writing this account of the processes for Mortgage 3.0, I began to wonder what challenges we will face next.  More importantly, who will take up the task for Mortgage 4.0 – seven years from now?  We will once again need a few GOOD MEN to step up and carry the Delta Chi Chapter at the University of Michigan onto the next phase.

In the Bond – John and Dave Levinson

Written by Joe Gradisher ‘79

First, let me set the stage.

The Pentagon

Located on the banks of the Potomac River (technically in Virginia, but considered part of Washington, DC), the Pentagon is the world’s largest office building. It has 5 sides (thus the “Pentagon”), 5 floors (the 5^th floor on the outside wall has no windows), 5 concentric rings (from outside inward: E-D-C-B-A), and 10 major corridors (numbered 1-10). If you walked around the outside… and added one more side, that is a mile. There are 17.5 miles of corridors. The center, open area of the building, is just over 5 acres in size. On any given (non-COVID) day, there are 25,000 people working in the building.

It is the headquarters for the Department of Defense, The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military services (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Space Force).

Prior to World War II, the people assigned to the headquarters for the War Department (Army) and the Navy Department (Navy/Marine) were scattered in various building throughout the area.  The idea of the Pentagon was to bring them all together in one building.

They broke ground for the construction on a clear, cool September morning in 1941. Actually, on September 11^th… 60 years to the day before another clear, cool September morning when the world changed. They built it in 5 sections, called wedges. They started with wedge 1, and worked their way around. It took them only 18 months to build it. 

It was meant to be a temporary office building… and after the war they planned on turning it into a large storage building for archiving. But once in and operating… that would never happen.

A couple of years before the 60^th anniversary of the groundbreaking, they started a 10-year renovation project. The building was terribly worn, and needed to modernize.  For the project, they completely emptied each section, again starting with wedge 1, stripped everything down to the concrete foundations, and built it back up.

As part of that renovation, they decided to reinforce the outside of the building in case of a truck bomb attack (the building is encircled by highways), learning lessons from the April 1995 truck bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Among the other upgrades to the outside wall: steel beams, 1 foot apart and blast proof windows held in by Kevlar matting. Inner walls and windows were reinforced or replaced as well.

Captain Joe Gradisher

I entered the Navy on the day I graduated from Michigan (28 April 1979), following completion of my time with the NROTC program. After 4 years on a Navy destroyer, I changed career fields and switched jobs to become a Public Affairs Officer… one of those official Navy spokesman that you see quoted in news media. 

By September of 2001, I had risen through the ranks and, as a Navy Captain, I was serving as the Deputy Chief of Information (Deputy CHINFO) for the Navy — the #2 leader in Navy Public Affairs.

Our office (CHINFO), was located on the 4^th floor of the Pentagon, B ring, right off the 4^th corridor.

We were located in wedge 1 of the renovation project, and were the first Navy office back in that wedge one area at the end of the renovation.

September 11, 2001

That morning was just like any other, until events started happening in New York City, and elsewhere…

In CHINFO, as the Navy’s headquarters public affairs office, we had multiple televisions sets on, monitoring the different news channels/programs. We saw the initial reports from New York, and watched in horror when the second plane impacted the World Trade Center… we knew immediately it was an attack on the United States.

At 9:37 a.m., as my boss (the Chief of Information, a Rear Admiral) and I met in his office to strategize how we would respond to the anticipated media requests for information on the status and readiness of Navy forces to respond, without warning, we were hit.

American Airlines Flight 77, flying out of Dulles Airport, had been high jacked by 5 terrorists over Kansas and aimed for the Pentagon.

The terrorist at the controls brought the plane in wheels up and actually skipped on the ground just before impact, bouncing up enough so that the plane entered the building between the 1^st and 2^nd floors. Here’s what it looks like when a Boeing 757 hits the building at 530 mph.

The plane penetrated through the outer (E) Ring, went through the D and C Rings, and popped out of the C Ring into an alleyway between the C and B ring (about 30 feet in width). By that point, the only thing left of the plane was the nose cone/front landing gear.  This gives you an idea of where the impact occurred and how deep it went.

As I said, we had no warning.

I was standing with my back towards a window in the admiral’s office when we were hit.  I felt… and heard… the impact.  One big WHAM!!!  And the concussion felt like whatever hit us was coming in directly over my shoulder.  Out of pure instinct, I ducked. 

You’d think your first instinct at that point is to run like hell… Nope. It’s to look out the window to see what is going on. Looking back at the window, I saw that it was violently shaking and bowing in and out.  Fortunately, it did not shatter.  Though not blast proof like the windows on the outside of the building, they were blast resistant… much stronger than the 60 year old windows they had replaced.  Were those old windows still in place, I would have been covered in the shattered glass and shrapnel, and probably would have at least been severely injured. The fireball passed directly over our heads, and that created a vacuum in the alley, so when I looked out, there was dust, debris, smoke and fire engulfing the alleyway.

Then it was our job to get everyone out.

We had about 60 people in the office that day, and we shepherded them out of the building into the South Parking lot… where thousands of cars were parked. The first order of business was to find out who got out and who was missing.  That was complicated.  The one designated “muster” point for our office was right where the plane hit.  So we had to pick a spot and try to find the 60 out of the 10,000 plus that probably came out to the same area.

While that was going on, I walked around to the impact area, still not knowing what had hit us… a plane like in New York? Or a truck bomb like in oklahoma City.  Near the hole in the building, aircraft pieces were scattered on the ground.

There was no doubt at that point.

As we were gathering our people together, all the security guards started screaming for everyone to get even further away from the building… there was another plane inbound.  We didn’t know it at the time, of course, but that turned out to be the United Airlines Flight 93, which the passengers forced into a crash landing in a field in Pennsylvania.

We evacuated under the nearby highways into another part of Arlington (Crystal City/Pentagon City)  and continued to gather our office mates. 

Eventually, our leadership team moved up a hill a bit to a Virginia Department of Transportation building that we used to reconstitute a Navy Headquarters, with the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations joining us.  We had to establish a 1-800 phone number to try and account for the thousands of Navy personnel in the building, as there was no easy way to account for people.

On the way there, my role as a public affairs officer played as well, as I stopped and briefed members of the news media on what happened in our area of the building.

Complicating any communications that day was the fact that the still relatively-new cell phone network in the area shut down due to the overload.

That made it hard to let my family know I was alive. At that time, my wife, Bonnie, and our two daughters lived in Michigan.  Older daughter Becky was a student at Michigan State, while Jenny was in high school.  When the attacks became known, they broadcast the TV images throughout the high school… sending Jenny into a panic.  The school officials couldn’t figure out why, as we had never really told them where I worked.  Bonnie had to go and get her out of school.

 It was nearly 4 hours before I could get to a landline and phone Bonnie to let her know I was alive.  And at that point, we didn’t know that we were about as close as you can get. It was a couple days later that we noticed in photographs that if that plane had crossed that alley, it would have been underneath us.

I firmly believed that the Pentagon renovation project saved me and all of us in our office that day.   The steel beams, reinforced blast proof windows, etc. slowed the momentum of the plane, preventing it from penetrating even further.

Nonetheless, the damage was extensive:

Oh yeah… this picture shows you where I was standing (in red), in relation to the impact area:

It may seem odd to say, but we got lucky that day.  Wedge 1 was due to be completed that week… so not everyone had moved back into that section. They were due to start wedge 2 the next week, so many of those offices were already vacated.  By shear chance, the plane hit the one spot in the building that had been renovated, and had the fewest number of people in the area.

We lost 184 people that day… 125 in the building (Largely Army and Navy uniformed, civilian and contractor staff) and 59 on the plane (we do not count the 5 terrorists).

Were it not for the renovation project, there would have been hundreds more.

Recovery

After a number of weeks, the decision was made to tear down the damaged section and rebuild. They called it “Project Phoenix” and the workers vowed to have people back in the offices, fully operational again by 11 September 2002.  They beat the deadline by a month!

We moved back into our CHINFO spaces in February… and watched them rebuild the Pentagon from our windows.

And to remember those who lost their lives there that day, they created the Pentagon 9-11 Memorial right outside the impact area, as well as a memorial room and chapel just inside the building in the area where the plane hit.

The Memorial features 184 benches, 1 for each of those lost.  They are arranged by year of birth, with 3-year old Dana Falkenberg at one end (she was on the plane with her 8 year old sister and parents)  and 71 year old Army contractor John Yamnicky (at work in the Pentagon) at the other end.

Last Thoughts

This is one of the signature events in our nation, where everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were similar events in that way.

Now 20 years on, we have an entire generation that was not even alive at that time… so it is incumbent on those of us who were alive… particularly those of us who were direct participants (survivors)… to tell our story.

The images I presented here were mostly drawn from official military photographs.  They are all part of a presentation that I’ve used over the years to speak to school and civic groups, mainly in Western Michigan.

My goal with those groups and with you, the Men of Delta Chi, is to follow through on the promise we made 20 years ago… We Will Never Forget.

In the Bond,  Joe

Captain Joe Gradisher, U.S. Navy (Ret)

Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Navy in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operation for information Warfare  [email protected]

Obituary for Harold M. Gibbons, 1950 Delta Chi

October 21, 2021May 27, 2022 by affcadmin

On February 4, 2021 while residing at Benchmark Senior Living in Norwood, MA. Hal Gibbons was born in Los Angeles, CA on May 5th, 1926. His parents, Herb and Pearl, had three children: Vivian, Hal, and Coloma. When Hal was eight years old, his family moved to Dearborn, MI in a Model T with all their belongings inside and strapped to the running boards. They moved to Michigan to be closer to his Aunt and Uncle. Hal’s Uncle trained Hal’s Dad to be an auto mechanic and set Herb up with his own auto shop in Michigan. Hal enjoyed helping his father work on cars. Hal was eighteen when he joined the Navy and served from 1944 – 1946. Hal married the love of his life, Joyce. Hal and Joyce were married on June 16, 1951 and enjoyed sixty-eight years of marital bliss. Hal and Joyce traveled the world together and lived in a beautiful home. Hal got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Engineering from the University of Michigan. Hal was an engineer at General Dynamics working in communications technology. Hal and Joyce lived in Medfield, MA and were loved by their many wonderful neighbors. They moved to Benchmark Senior Living in Norwood several years ago to enjoy all the activities and social functions that the assisted living facility provided. Hal and Joyce were devoted members of the United Church of Christ. Hal has had an incredible and successful life full of great memories. A small prayer service at the cemetery is being planned and will be announced on this website. To plant a tree in memory of Harold Gibbons, please visit our Tribute Store.

Alumni Profile: Dan Maher ’76

September 27, 2021March 22, 2022 by affcadmin

Brother Dan Maher, a graduate from 1976, credits his years as a Delta Chi at the University of Michigan as some of the most formative times in his life.

Maher’s positive experience started early on; he rushed during his freshman year and lived in the house for the remaining three years of his time at Michigan. Moving into the house was a welcome break from the dorms for Maher, who grew up with five siblings (four of whom were brothers). Living in the quiet, contained dorms proved too isolating and suffocating, and he missed the commotion that came along with being a part of a big family. Maher found this family in Delta Chi and 1705 Hill Street.

When Maher joined Delta Chi he had reached an important point in his life. What followed was a time period that was both positive and developmental. During his undergraduate years, he learned who he was as a person and what he was good at. Delta Chi, and Maher’s experiences there, shaped him, helping him grow and develop his professional strengths. According to Brother Maher, this developmental period is one of the most important factors in being successful. He says that as undergraduates, “You need to find a profession or role or job that you like. That will help you develop a passion for it. This passion gives you the best chance of maximizing your talents and maximizing your ability to produce.”

Maher warns younger brothers to be cautious when deciding who you are and what you want to be: “Even when you think you have it figured out, something is most likely going to change. When this happens, you need to be able to reassess and revaluate.”

This skill of being able to reassess and revaluate is one of the reasons Dan Maher has been so successful professionally. Maher started working for Deloitte, LLP immediately after graduation and has continued to work there for the past 38 years. He has been a tax partner with Deloitte for the last 28 of those years. His job has evolved so much over the years that Maher has been faced with many different challenges, including learning the complex technical issues of taxation, learning how to supervise and motivate people, advising a wide variety of client personalities and businesses and determining how to develop and lead a team.

Something else that has evolved during his years at Deloitte is Brother Maher’s relationship with his clients. He explains that you should understand the business of your client and what they are trying to accomplish — you have to understand how they view their world and what is important to them. This is true of any leadership position, even in the fraternity. Eventually, rather than giving a client purely technical answers, you need to look through the eyes of the client and provide advice to them in terms that they can understand and act on.

Dan Maher was very active during his undergraduate years. He held the positions of Recording Secretary and Treasurer. During his tenure as Recording Secretary, Maher is convinced that he holds the record for the most cryptic and short chapter meeting minutes. He shared a story about a particular meeting where the chapter president at the time spent a good 10 minutes pleading and exhorting the actives of the chapter for involvement and action on some urgent matter. Maher managed to encapsulate this entire plea into one sentence, a short one at that. When the president reviewed the draft minutes he inquired of Brother Maher, “These minutes are amazing, I sure thought I said more than that.” The minutes went out as drafted.

In addition to the positions he held within the fraternity, Brother Maher was a member of all the Delta Chi Michigan intramural sports teams, due mostly to the fact that, with only 16 actives, every breathing body was needed. His long-time roommate (and future best man at his wedding), Ron Scafe ‘77, even convinced him to serve as goalie on the water polo squad– this despite the fact that he couldn’t tread water longer than a few seconds at a time. When asked about his marginal athletic abilities, Maher proclaims with a smile, “I was ‘All-Delta Chi’ in every sport.”

Brother Maher has been an asset to our chapter both as an undergraduate and an alumnus. Though he may not live in the house anymore, he feels that Delta Chi gave him a lifetime connection to the school and a place to always come back to- a feeling we can all relate to, especially now in the last days of Venerable 1705. Dan Maher would love to get back in touch with and see any and all of his contemporary brothers. A few that have been AWOL for a while include Mark DeLange ’75, Rob Vonderhaar ‘75, most of the ROTC crew and the Front Triple Guys: Harry, Larry, and Randy.

 

The following is an update in February 2021 from Dan.

Marilyn and I are working on our 34th year of marital bliss. Our two kids are mostly grown and out of the house, and we are patiently waiting for them to develop into the successful superstars we know they will surely become.

I retired from Deloitte Tax in 2016, after 40 years. I currently am teaching part-time at Oakland University. I teach Introductory Accounting to the freshmen newbies in the Winter term and Tax Research as well as Corporate Tax in the Fall to 4th and 5th year students. I do my best to torture the most recent generation of business school wannabes with tales of “how the world really works”.

When I find an interesting course in the Political Science or History sections, I sign up as a student. I sit in a class with students young enough to be my grandkids, and I listen to a professor about the age of my children. Funny thing is, the other students talk among themselves like I’m not even there, it’s amazing what you pick up as a fly on the wall when you aren’t seen.

I have served on the board of Catholic Charities for the last 20+ years, that’s the agency through which we adopted our 2 kids. I also serve on our Clinton Township Ethics Board.

Otherwise, I busy myself with bi-monthly meetings of the subdivision cigar-smoking club, working out at LA Fitness, bowling at the DAC (for the last 40 years, and I’m still somewhere in the lousy to average group), boating on Lake St. Clair (just swapped my 31 foot Carver for a 350 Formula Crossover BowRider), and the occasional golf outing.

Still have my UM football season tickets, although I must admit, I’ve departed the Jim Harbaugh Fan Club, and am now waiting for the university to grow some —-s and fire the guy (Warde Manual has proven he has none of that manly stuff required to do the job.) On the other hand, I be lovin’ me some Juwan and the basketball program. What a performance against the Buckeyes on the national stage last Sunday!

Hoping to hear from the rest of youse guys. [email protected]

Alumni Updates

September 8, 2021May 27, 2022 by affcadmin

The editors of the eDelt, our communication to Michigan Delta Chi fraternity members, have implemented a bi-monthly section called “Alumni Updates.”   Our plan is to keep members in the loop in the forthcoming years by letting others know what is going on in their lives.  Our success depends in having YOU tell us what is going on with you and others that you have communicated with.   It doesn’t need to be earthshaking, It can be long or short. (If you can’t think of a topic, we might suggest the following as possible topics for updates: Where you are living, who do you work for and what do you there, who are you living with and what children do you have, what hobbies are you pursuing and what do you do for exercise.)   We like to have pictures.  Here is our September effort which we hope you enjoy.  Direct your material to Frank Morrey ’64 at  [email protected]  or Keith Hellems ’62 at [email protected]

Rick Simon ’79    I graduated with my BSEE from U of M in 1979.  I worked one year at Ford Motor Company and then thanks in part to Rick Mousseau, I got a job at Rocketdyne and move to Southern California in 1980.  I got to worked on numerous projects including Space Shuttle Main Engine Avionics.  While at Rocketdyne, I met my wife Verlyn, and future business partner, Dennis Kaloi.  Verlyn and I were married in 1987 and now live in Westlake Village with our two sons, Tyler and Jake.

Dennis and I formed Simon-Kaloi Engineering in 1990 and have been working together since that time.  We manufacture and consult in hi-tech electronic products and services.  I love spending time with my family, playing music, fishing, and following Michigan Sports.  I fly the Michigan Flag outside our house and engineered our doorbell to play “The Victors” and “Let’s Go Blue” Cheer!   GO BLUE!  [email protected]

Rick, Verlyn, Tyler and Jake

 

 

Paul Luch ’87  Carissa and I have now moved to St. Charles, Illinois. We were in tropical Appleton, WI for the last 7 years. Carissa’s company, Kimberly Clark, moved us to the Chicago area after 7 years in Wisconsin as they are opening a new building in downtown Chicago. We have been married now 34 years.  While we were in Cleveland, I went back to school and finished my registered nursing degree. I am now a hospice registered nurse. I am starting my new job in the Chicago area with Seasons Hospice this week. I have retired from playing basketball and now play ice hockey. I have been playing for the last 23 years. I am joining a group that I played with previously in the area. In my free time I am enjoying driving my new 2021 MINI JCW GP. It is number 1193 out of 3000 made and hoping to get it out on the track next summer. So since graduation in 1987 we have been in Blacksburg, VA, Naperville, IL, Battle Creek, MI, Bradenton, FL, Aurora, OH, Appleton, WI and now St Charles, IL. We do not know where next but am looking forward to a warm winter.  This is us at the Minnesota State Fair attending a concert.   [email protected]

Keith Hellems ’62  — (Here is basically a 2020 Christmas letter since too busy as co-editor to put an update together)    2020 was a unique year for everyone.   What a way for Joyce and Keith to bring in their 79^th and 80th birthdays, respectively.

We took evasive action with Covid.  Joyce switched in-person bridge for bridge online.   This allowed her to play people from all over the world and also with her usual local bridge group.   We’ve been playing weekly bridge with Joyce’s sister, Sylvia, and her husband Bob via Bridgebase.com.   Keith and Bob are amateurs while Joyce and Sylvia are “semi-pro.”  Out of the 30 plus meetings Bob and Keith won 3 weeks in a row, a very unique situation, so Keith had a trophy made which they proudly display.

Her volunteer prison ministry, Kairos, was put on hold since there could be no visits to the prison, so she continued her church work by helping our local Anglican church outreach program which teaches foreign people to learn English, especially conversational English.   This is done via Zoom network.

While the nation was in shut down mode, Joyce made three quilts from material she had on hand which was found because we had plenty of time to look through stored “stuff.”

Keith continued to create albums out of albums.   We had approximately thirty 1.5-2 inch wide picture albums collected over the years.   Four kids and how to divide the pictures – the solution was to digitize the photos of the original albums and then make Shutterfly albums, including comments and details, and have one made for each child.  This year he did #6, 7 and 8 covering 1983 through 1988.  Either 111 pages or 1,000 pictures, whichever came first.

In 2014 Keith got involved with three other University of Michigan Delta Chi fraternity brothers to raze an old, tired fraternity house and build a new one.   They raised one million dollars with 1,000’s of phone calls and emails.   A new house was dedicated in 2017.   What used to be a 25-35 member house is now the largest fraternity on the Michigan campus with 100 plus members.   He is now working as a co-editor of a monthly Delta Chi email sent to all the members which takes a lot of his time.

This year Joyce and Keith have re-newed Scrabble games and watched more Netflix and Amazon Prime TV programs than ever before.  Joyce enjoyed doing several 1,000 piece puzzles.

To keep our brains from completely rotting Joyce does “Codeword a Day” puzzles and Keith does “Wordscape” puzzles on his iPhone.   We also do various courses from “The Great Courses” company (which I highly recommend).  

Our four kids remain safe.   Harper (son) and Martha have remained in Greenwood, Va.  Kingsley and her family live about a block from us and they invite us almost weekly to eat dinner with them which we do at a distance.   Kristen and her family live in Jackson, MS.  Our youngest daughter, Kim, was in Daytona Beach for 6-8 months to complete a course in radiation dosimetry and now has her first job and lives in Norfolk, VA.

We hope all of you have found activities to carry you through this quite unusual year.

Bob Sielski ’64   Editor’s note: Since the co-editors are of the same vintage as Bob, we are fascinated by his ability to just keep running like the “Energizer” bunny.  He has a July update to his continuing story and has given us his tentative September schedule which looks tough to us non-runners.

 

Feb 7, 2021 — I ran (walked?) the Melbourne Florida Marathon this morning. The course consisted of two 13-mile loops going north along the Indian River, crossing it going east on a causeway and bridge, going south along a residential road, and completing the loop by heading west over another causeway and bridge. During the first loop, thunderstorms developed and the course was closed, so I was only permitted to complete a half-marathon of 13.1 miles. I could have gone at a faster pace, but I was pacing myself for 26.2 miles. I finished number 209 of 224 overall. To maintain social distancing, they did not give out age-group awards. However, as I was the only male 75 or over, I would have taken first place in that category by default (although there was a 76- year old woman who finished four minutes ahead of me).

February 13 —I ran the Brevard Zoo’s Rafiki Run 3K this morning with grandsons Forest and Cameron. They left me in the dust, but I did finish #557 of 966 overall and #3 for my age group. I was beaten by one four-year old, and one five-year old, but better for them.

April 20 — I finished the Golden Driller Marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma last Saturday, April 17. My time was more than 12 minutes faster than in my last marathon in November 2020, so I can’t complain. I finished number 215 out of 228 overall and number 139 out of 141 males. And I was number 1 for males over 75 by default. This makes my 37th state, so I have only 13 more states to complete.

States remaining: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York

I plan to run marathons back-to-back in New Jersey and New York on June 8 and 9, 2021, but those will be slow 26.2-mile events with no time limit.  

I mainly run marathons, unless there is a local 5K event for a charity that I want to support.  The 3K run with my grandsons on February 13 was to support our local zoo, and then I did a 5K the following Saturday for support of an Autism charity.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, many events have been cancelled, but I flew to Tulsa on April 15 with little difficulty, and the Delta Airline plane was about ¾ full.

 

I also swim and bicycle, and am planning to enter a sprint triathlon on May 16 here in Cocoa, Florida.  ¼ mile swim, 12.5-mile bike, and 5K run.  I am still working part-time as a consultant to the U.S. Office of Naval Research, but that has not involved travelling for more than a year, as the government is very restrictive on travel and open meetings for employees and consultants.

May 16 — I finished the Space Coast Triathlon this morning, Sunday, May 16, 2021. (1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) I finished # 187 out of 190 overall. There were a bunch of other old geezers there too, and I was #6 of 7 males 70+.

June 8  — I finished two marathons yesterday, June 8 in Stokes State Forest, New Jersey and today, June 9 in Port Jervis, New York. Yesterday I finished number 34 of 48 overall, and today number 18 of 29 overall. That makes a lifetime total of 57 marathons in 39 states

July 5 — I finished the Firecracker 5K yesterday morning in Melbourne, FL. I finished #655 out of 1,030 overall, #329/444 Male, and #4/6 Male 75–79.

September Update from Bob as follows: “ I will let you know what happens.  Next Saturday, September 11, 2021 is Patriot’s Run in Overland Park Kansas.  The next Tuesday September 14 is Mainly Marathons in Chadron, Nebraska, and the following Saturday, September 18 is Mainly Marathons in Baker, Montana.”

Jim Fuger ‘82: Read his Delta Chi profile and his story of where he was on 9/11

September 7, 2021May 27, 2022 by affcadmin

From 1979 until his graduation in 1982, Jim lived in the Delta Chi house. During his first year, his roommate was Greg “Pode” Roda ’83 — they lived in the basement. For the next two years, he would live in “Bear’s Room.” One of his best memories is of a particular stealth operation in the backyard of the house with Brother Roda. “We buried Greg’s motorcycle in the backyard. It didn’t run, and he didn’t know how to get rid of it. So, we buried it.” Inquiring minds want to know — is it still there?

As Jim reflects on his Delta Chi days, he remembers that the house was in relatively good shape as compared to other houses on campus. The brothers studied hard and played hard. And, they had the best cook on campus — John “JR” Russell. In addition to JR’s exceptionally tasty meals, he has fond memories of the camaraderie of his brothers and awards received during chapter meetings (the “light” and the “dork”). However, there is one aspect of Delta Chi life that has impressed him the most: the decision by Delta Chi national officials to be the first fraternity nationally to ban hazing.

Following graduation, Jim went to work with Merrill Lynch in Atlanta, Ga. Greg Roda was from Atlanta, and his family helped Jim get settled. Other brothers, including Steve Hook ’82, Mark “Buns” Dunning ’84, Scott Walls ’83 and Frank Morrey ’64, soon located to the Southeast. They have since dispersed to different parts of the country.

Jim has worked for Merrill Lynch (acquired by Bank of America 2009) for 32 years where he has held a variety of positions in finance, operations, technology and sales. In 2003, he obtained an MBA from New York University. Currently, he is a director in Merrill Lynch’s U.S. wealth management business responsible for financial advisory recognition and compensation programs. One note of interest is that Jim was on one of the last PATH trains into the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. He spent the day getting back to his home in New Jersey, which he was able to do by ferry at the end of the day. Read his 9/11 story in this eDelta.

In 1989, Jim and wife, Kay, were married. They have two grown daughters: Rebecca (23) and Caroline (21). He counts his family and career as his biggest successes. In his downtime, he enjoys snow skiing, golf, traveling and work working. Jim also runs the annual charity golf outing on behalf of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“I want people to remember that I tried to make the world a better place and improve the lives of others,” he says. “To my younger Delta Chi brothers, I would say: Follow the Golden Rule, live long and prosper (the Vulcan creed) and have fun!”

Chapter Eternal: Scott Fogler

September 7, 2021June 21, 2022 by affcadmin

Scott Fogler, professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, and father of Peter Fogler ’89 and Robert Fogler ’91, passes August 21, 2021. Below is the funeral home obituary. We also included the obituary from the Chemical Engineering Department honoring him.  

Funeral home obit:

Obituary for Professor H. Scott Fogler

Hugh Scott Fogler of Ann Arbor, Mich. passed away Saturday, August 21, 2021, at the University of Michigan Hospital surrounded by the love and presence of his wife and three children. He was 81. Scott – or Skip as he was often called by his wife, sister, and childhood and college friends – was born in Normal, Ill. to Ralph Waldo and Ann Fogler. He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois (1962) and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado (1963; 1965), where he was named a distinguished alumnus in 1987. Scott spent his entire 56-year academic career with the chemical engineering faculty at the University of Michigan. In addition to teaching and researching for more than five decades, Scott served as Associate Dean of the College of Engineering (1981-1984) and Department Chair of Chemical Engineering (1985-1990).

Scott was always brimming with ideas and the urge to immediately follow up on them. Pivotal to his remarkable national and international impact, Scott authored or co-authored 12 textbooks, including Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering and Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering. Throughout his career he assiduously, creatively, consistently, and meaningfully updated these textbooks, and they are currently used in an estimated 75% of the chemical engineering programs worldwide. Throughout his long career, Scott received many awards, honors, and accolades from national professional societies, as well as from the Department, College, U of M and other universities. Some of his recent honors include an honorary degree, doctor honoris causa, from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain, (2017) and the F.J. & Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award for Service to AIChE (2019). He was one of five professors to receive the Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year from the Michigan Association of State Universities (2020). Scott was very active in service to professional societies. His most notable service was to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), where he served as president in 2009, and, among other achievements, created the long-running and much lauded Chem-E-Car Competition, which has drawn teams from more than 100 universities.

Scott loved to explore the world. Almost always accompanied by his wife, he travelled the globe professionally — from Brazil to South Africa to Thailand and most places in between — lecturing, teaching, and joyfully spreading his love of chemical engineering to generations of students. Together with their children, he and his wife, Janet, also enjoyed a Fulbright scholar stint in Norway in 1974 and a sabbatical in Sweden in 1982. He and Janet also spent four sabbaticals in England. In 1995, Scott was invited for the first time to lecture in South Africa. During that trip he was inspired to develop a decades-long program that brought South African students from the University of the Witwatersrand who had been greatly affected by their country’s apartheid policies to study here. In addition, he invited scores of students from India, Thailand, and Sweden to study in his lab and expand their engineering and life experiences. Forty-five Ph.D. students graduated from his well-funded research group which published more than 240 articles under his leadership. He loved teaching undergraduate and graduate “ChemE” courses as well as a course he created on strategies for creative problem solving.

But Scott’s true passion in life was his family. He met his wife, Janet, on a blind date in 1959 at the University of Illinois and they were together from that moment on, married 59 years, until his death. Together he and Janet had three children, Peter Scott Fogler of Ann Arbor; Robert Meadors Fogler of Englewood, Colo.; and Kristin Ann Bellini of Lakewood, Colo. He was the proud “FarFar” to four grandchildren: Maxwell, Joseph, Sophia, and Nicolas. When his children were younger, Scott was a baseball coach, an enthusiastic supporter of all of their activities (there were A LOT of piano recitals and 6 a.m. hockey games), and founder of the Ann Arbor branch of the father-daughter program at the YMCA that is currently part of the Y’s Adventure Guides. Together he and his family traveled and lived abroad, followed all of the U of M and Detroit sports teams, and were long-time campers at Camp Michigania on Walloon Lake. His family fondly remembers canoe trips down the Pine River, annual family fall picnics, the backyard ice rink he created each winter, and often tagging along to out-of-town conferences. Later in life, Scott and his family loved to spend hours sitting on porches, patios and decks, reliving stories of their life together. An avid cook and foodie, Scott’s CV always proudly included his certificate from the New Orleans School of Cooking as one of his academic achievements. Everything he did was infused with his trademark humor. He told jokes whenever he could, including in his textbooks and even as he knowingly neared the end of his life. He is survived by his wife, his three children, his four grandchildren, his sister Karen Ann Ilyin, and several nieces and their families.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to The Scott and Janet Scholarship Fund at the University of Michigan* or the First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor, 120 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, Mich., 48105.

Read more about Scott’s extraordinary career at: www.che.engin.umich.edu/people/fogler-scott/

*Make checks payable to “University of Michigan” with memo “Scott and Janet Fogler Scholarship Fund.” Gifts to endowment funds will be administered as a permanent endowment under Michigan law and university policies. Mail checks to: Michigan Engineering, 1221 Beal Avenue, Suite G264, Ann Arbor, Mich., 48109. To give by credit card or other method, call the Engineering Gift Office at 734-647-7043.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Professor H. Scott Fogler, please visit our Heartfelt Sympathies Store.

 

 

FROM CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT UNIV. OF MICHIGAN

Remembering H. Scott Fogler, 1939-2021

He changed the chemical engineering profession as a researcher, scholar, author, and, most importantly, a skilled and accomplished educator.

Written by: Sandra Swisher

Professor H. Scott Fogler, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Vennema Professor of Chemical Engineering, passed away on August 21, 2021. Scott joined U–M Chemical Engineering in 1965 as an assistant professor, spending over 50 years enriching the development of his students, his department, and the field of chemical engineering.

Scott was known to the chemical engineering world as a researcher, scholar, author, and, most importantly, a skilled and accomplished educator. He was passionate about teaching, and worked tirelessly to teach his students the tools and creative skills they would use throughout their careers to make a difference in the world. As an author of world-renowned textbooks in chemical reaction kinetics and in creative problem solving, an exceptional, industrially focused researcher in upstream petroleum engineering, and service leader both at UM and at the national level, Scott Fogler’s impact on Chemical Engineering changed the profession.

Scott earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois (1962), and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado (1963; 1965), which named him a distinguished alumnus in 1987. He joined the Chemical Engineering faculty at the University of Michigan in 1965 as an assistant professor. In addition to teaching and researching for more than five decades, Scott served the Department and College in many roles, including Associate Dean of the College of Engineering (1981 – 1984), Department Chair of Chemical Engineering (1985 -1990), the Ame and Catherine Vennema Professor of Chemical Engineering since 1984, and, since 2003, as an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor for his outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.

Notably, Scott served for more than 10 years as UM’s American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Student Faculty Advisor. Under his mentorship, our chapter was honored with an Outstanding Student Chapter Award every year. Under his influence and guidance, the chapter developed a system whereby students can speak with company recruiters every week of the semester.

Scott was very active in service to professional societies. His most notable service was to AIChE, where he served as President in 2009, and, among other achievements, created the long-running and much lauded Chem-E-Car Competition®. In 2017, colleagues, friends, and former students established an endowment through AIChE to honor his legacy and commitment to the education of students and the practice of chemical engineering.  This endowment supported the renamed “Scott Fogler AIChE Chem-E-Car Competition First Place Prize.”

Throughout his long career, Scott received many awards, honors, and accolades from national professional societies, as well as from the Department, College, UM and other universities. His most recent honors include an honorary degree, doctor honoris causa, recognizing his international impact, from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain (2017); the AIChE F.J. & Dorothy Van Antwerpen Award for Service to the Institute (2019); the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) CACHE Award for Excellence in Computing in Chemical Engineering Education (2019); and the Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year from the Michigan Association of State Universities (2020). Always engaged, Scott continued to make valuable contributions throughout his long career.

Well known for his work on the application of fundamental chemical reaction engineering principles to the petroleum industry, Scott published 240+ research articles with his students – more than 49 master’s students and 45 doctoral students – in areas such as acidization of petroleum wells, upstream engineering gelation kinetics, wax deposition in subsea pipelines, and asphaltene flocculation and deposition kinetics.  Over the last 20 years, Scott focused his research on problems in upstream research with particular focus on asphaltene and paraffin deposition. This research enabled him to serve on President Barack Obama’s commission regarding the flow of diluted bitumen in the Keystone Pipeline.

Pivotal to his remarkable national and international impact, Scott authored or co-authored 12 textbooks, including Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 4^th Edition, and Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering. Assiduously, creatively, consistently, and meaningfully updated, these textbooks, currently used in an estimated 75% of the chemical engineering programs worldwide, have dominated the world market for the past 25 years, helping to prepare generations of chemical engineers. Scott also co-authored Strategies for Creative Problem Solving with Dr. Steve LeBlanc, winning the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) Meriam/Wiley Distinguished Author Award (1996), and, in addition, was honored with the AICHE Warren K. Lewis Award for Chemical Engineering Education (1995) for contributions of lasting educational influence.

Scott loved to cook, having earned a certificate from the New Orleans School of Cooking in 1985, and he loved to travel. He and his wife Jan traveled throughout the world, including during a Fulbright scholar stint in Norway in 1974 and a sabbatical in Sweden in 1982. In multiple trips to Thailand to teach reactions and creative problem solving, Scott was instrumental in starting a relationship with the Chulalongkorn University’s Petroleum and Petrochemical College, which provided scores of students opportunities to work with UM Chemical Engineering faculty, including over 30 students to work in his laboratory.

According to Laura Bracken, his assistant for nearly 40 years, Scott made it possible for 56 students from Chulalongkorn University, 49 students from the Indian Institute of Technology, and 20 students from the CHUST Committee at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology to come to the Department to study. In addition, he was responsible for enabling 11 South African students from the University of the Witwatersrand who had been greatly affected by their country’s apartheid policies to study here. Open, curious, and eager to share his knowledge, he gave similar opportunities to students from Spain, Brazil, and China.

Closer to home, the Department hosted a 25/50/75 Celebration of Scott’s achievements in May 2015. His colleagues, current students, and 35 former students honored him with a symposium and dinner at the Michigan Union to celebrate 25 years of Scott’s book as the dominant textbook in chemical reaction engineering, his 50 years at the University of Michigan, and his 75th birthday. In October 2019, the Department celebrated his 80^th birthday with a New Orleans-style breakfast reception during homecoming weekend and a reception at the 2019 AIChE National Meeting.

Scott is survived by his wife, Jan; his 3 children, Peter, Robert, and Kristin; and 4 grandchildren. A memorial service is planned for September, should COVID restrictions allow.