April 2009 IN THIS ISSUE… Alumni Updates . . . . . . . . . . .2 Get on our Email List . . . . . . .2 Graduate Profile . . . . . . . . . . .3 In Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 HOUSE CORPORATION REPORT UPCOMING EVENT Greenville Reunion May 1 Recruiting for the Future: The Qualities of a UNC Student have Changed throughout the Years Pig Dinner and Fall Football Weekend Provide Year-Round Opportunities for Graduate Brothers to Reunite By John Hughes III ’66 2009 UNC Football Sept. 5: Sept. 12: Sept. 19: Sept. 26: Oct. 3: Oct. 10: Oct. 17: Oct. 22: Oct. 29: Nov. 7: Nov. 14: Nov. 21: Nov. 28: The Citadel at UConn ECU at Georgia Tech Virginia Georgia Southern Bye Florida State at Virginia Tech Duke Miami at Boston College at NC State Home games in bold. Stay tuned for details of a Phi Gam fall football reunion! ON THE WEB What’s My Member ID? Your Member ID for first time login at www.epsilonpgd.com can be found above your name and address on this newsletter. The Epsilon Owl It’s a great spring day here in Chapel Hill. The grass is green in front on the Phi Gam house, the benches are full of brothers, and the coeds that walk by are as pretty as always (and still get the same comments from the bench sitters). And we are once again the NCAA national champions! Ten years ago or so, many of you dug deep and contributed $942,000 to rebuild Vance Hall. We borrowed an additional $1,200,000, which is now paid down to $128,000, and in two years will be paid off entirely. Charles Bell ’91 has done a great job in managing this debt and keeping us focused on paying it down quickly. Having zero debt will allow us to establish a capital reserve and ensure that Epsilon will continue to be financially viable for years to come. Thanks to all who contributed to the future of our house. We continue to spend approximately $25,000 to 30,000 in annual maintenance on the house. We have a much more complicated building than we did when most of us were there: eight air conditioner systems, sprinklers, fire alarms, wireless internet, etc. All of these items require constant maintenance. We appreciate your continued support of the annual fund to help with this annual maintenance (see page 2 for an annual fund update). In the fall, we hosted a graduate event during the Notre Dame football weekend that was very well attended. If you were not there, you missed out! Watch for details of another similar event this coming fall. The football team is much improved, and for a change might be a nationally-ranked contender. Go Butch! Pig Dinner 2009 was held at the Angus www.epsilonpgd.com Barn in Raleigh and was well attended by a wide age range of brothers. Rusty Carter ’71 spoke about the fact that the demographics of the students that attend UNC are changing, and suggested that we need to change with it. The House Corporation will meet with the Cabinet this summer to strategize on ways to continue recruiting quality men. Some things are for certain: there are fewer guys coming out for rush, it is more difficult to attract the kind of guys we want, there is more competition for them as the pool is smaller and we have to broaden our geographic reach. We can no longer be a house made up of guys east of Highway 95. “Incoming freshmen at Carolina are more focused on academics than ever before, and we need to make the fraternity experience more relevant to them. Your recommendations for qualified incoming freshmen are appreciated.” Incoming freshmen at Carolina are more focused on academics than ever before, and we need to make the fraternity experience more relevant to them. Change is always a challenge, but the guys that make up our current chapter are as smart a bunch and dedicated to continuing the tradition of Epsilon as any of us ever were. Your recommendations for qualified incoming freshmen are appreciated. Email your recommendations to me at jhughes@vistatm.com. 1 \r\nANNUAL FUND Help Us to Finish the 2008-09 Giving Year Strong Annual Fund (9/1 - 8/31) $30,000 $25,000 Dollars Raised Thank you to our graduate donors, listed on the online Honor Roll at www.epsilonpgd.com, for helping us to raise $15,120 in the 2008-09 giving year, as of April 9. We need your help to finish the giving year strong and to reach levels we’ve seen in past years! The annual fund supports our efforts to keep you connected with Phi Gam through the Epsilon Owl and our web site. It also helps us to maintain the house which we worked so hard to renovate nearly a decade ago. If you aren’t already listed on the Honor Roll, please make your donation online at www.epsilonpgd.com, by calling 800-975-6699, or by mailing a check payable to “Epsilon of Phi Gamma Delta, Inc.” to the return address on this newsletter. $25,621 $28,362 $26,623 $21,409 $20,000 $15,120 $15,000 $10,000 $5,000 0 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 YTD ON THE WEB Are You Receiving our Monthly e-Letter? We are missing email addresses for more than 44% of you! If you’re not receiving our monthly e-Letters, update your contact information on our web site at www.epsilonpgd.com or send your email address to content@affinityconnection.com (mention Phi Gam UNC). By increasing our email communications, we can save money on paper, printing and postage and allocate our funds to other uses. You can also check out the email lost list on our site. If you see your name or are in touch via email with any of the brothers on the list, follow the above instructions to update our alumni relations office. PHI GAM NEWS ’70s ’00s Bill Wilkerson ’70 was initiated into Phi Gamma Delta Epsilon Chapter on November 23, 2008. He transferred to UNC-CH as a sophomore and was there from 1967-1970. Bill was a Phi Gam social affiliate, lived in the house for three years and had a close and enjoyable fraternity relationship. Thirty-eight years later he is officially a brother. Bill is the father of Holton Wilkerson ’00 and brother of Edwin Wilkerson ’61, both Phi Gams at UNC. Bill lives in Greenville, NC, with his wife Ellen. Jared Brown ’09 (center) sent in this picture of Phi Gams celebrating UNC’s NCAA championship on Franklin Street. Also pictured are Bryan Ives ’10 (left) and Charlie Winn ’10. 2 Were you in Detroit for the championship game? Share your photos and stories online at www.epsilonpgd.com. www.epsilonpgd.com April 2009 \r\nGRADUATE PROFILE The “Incredible Tale” Donald “Duck” Bryan ’57 Shares His (Almost Unbelievable, but True) Stories of How He Met Long-Lost Phi Gam Friends in His Graduate Years Donald “Duck” Bryan ’57 has hundreds of stories to tell, some of which are so incredible, they are almost unbelievable. Such as this one. On a flight home from encounters with other brothers through the years and remembers them fondly. Some reunions, however, have not been so much by chance, but rather through his own efforts and the efforts of other graduate brothers. According to Don, Dixie Green ’48 and Bill Hendrick ’51, along with a few other brothers, had begun small luncheon gatherings with brothers in 2000. A few years later, Don said he and his wife were out to dinner with brothers and they planned another gathering right on the spot. As a member of the Rocky Mountain Beach Bums, Don had been in touch with Duck, and the rest of the 1954 pledge class. several people through email Puerto Rico with his late second wife, and said he was recruited to help spread Julia, Don was sitting in an aisle seat in the the word about the annual gatherings. back of the plane. A few minutes passed One time in particular, he was until another man sat down in the aisle approached to contact his former seat across from him. The man asked Don roommate, Thomas Capps ’58, to invite where he was from, and Don answered he him to the gathering to receive an award. was from the Rocky Mountain area, South Don said he knew he needed to tell of Richmond. The man replied saying he Thomas what it was about and that it was from the Cape Hatteras area. Don couldn’t be something that was kept under shared with the man that he had lost touch the rug. After calling his office and finally years ago with a friend from there. The getting in touch with Thomas’ secretary, man then asked what the friend’s name Don left a message: “Tell him ’The Duck’ was, so Don told him: his old friend was needs 45 seconds of his time.” Joe Lamb. Within an hour, Don got a call back “I swear, the man’s face got as serious from Thomas, and said it was the first time as midnight mass,” Don remembers. “He they had talked in about five years. He asked my name and then said, ’Duck, I’m told Thomas that he was voted the Most Joe Lamb.’” Outstanding Phi Gamma Delta in the country in the business category. The two had not seen each other since 1955, when they had both left to join the Don said, “Tommy, you know you service. have made a lot of decisions in your life, and many have been successful. You can Since that day on the plane, they have come to Greenville to accept it or get it in been reunited as friends, and in December the award in the mail.” of 2006, Joe was finally initiated as a brother of Phi Gamma Delta, alongside For the first time in more than 15 his two grandsons who are also Epsilon years, they saw each other that year at the brothers. gathering in Greenville. Don has had several random Don recalls that Bill Martin, executive The Epsilon Owl www.epsilonpgd.com director of the International Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta, has attended the gatherings a few times in the past, and that he thought if it wasn’t the best get together nationwide, it was certainly one of the top three for graduate brothers. Today, Don is retired and lives in Cape Carteret, NC. He has two daughters (one of whom lives with him) and one son from his first marriage. He said he had a rough second half of 2008, with the passing of his second wife, Julia, in September. He also had brain surgery to reduce the shakes from Parkinson’s disease, and said people have commented on how much better he is doing now. Don believes that being involved with the graduate brothers gathering has helped him learn how to deal with all kinds of people. He said he is still in touch with several brothers and has “enjoyed doing what [he has] done for the Phi Gams of Chapel Hill.” He is looking forward to this year’s gathering on May 1st at the Greenville Country Club, for which he said there are already 45 people signed up. You can reconnect with Don at 252-393-8851 or donald.dt@gmail.com. Duck today, with his dog Locket. 3 \r\n778-110 SN MH IN MEMORY Tribute to John Goldfinch ’72 Since publication of our last newsletter we have also learned of the deaths of: “His Spirit will Always Be There” By Fred Dula ’72 Over the past year, our friend and brother John Goldfinch ’72 fought a horrible disease with every ounce of his strength. But he eventually lost the battle. I witnessed the struggle first hand and was amazed at the courage and optimism with which he, Carolyn, and his family faced this monster. John was still involved in his financial business with his daughter Martha until a couple of weeks before his death, and I was with him when he and his son Jay put the final touches on his pride and joy: his book of photography and prose, “Memories.” A copy of this book is in the Sanctuary at Vance Hall for all Phi Gams to see. John had more fun and caused more people around him to have fun than anyone I have ever known. He knew more Phi Gams than anyone short of Pop or B.T. The 40-years of Phi Gams represented at his funeral attest to the respect and esteem the brotherhood had for him. He truly loved all his brothers, and I know that love was returned to him many times over. Everyone knew John on a different level. Through our conversations over the years, I came to know a truly spiritual, philosophical, artistic and loving guy. I and countless others will miss him greatly. John’s absence at Pig Dinner this year was felt by all in attendance. He made it to most of the 40 or so Pig Dinners that occurred while he was a brother. He would have loved this one, especially the tributes from Brothers Carter and Griffin. Let’s remember to save him a seat, for although he will never again sit with us in body, I just know that somehow his spirit will always be there. Moran McLendon ’46 James Hayworth ’47 (12/18/08) Ernest C. McLean ’48 (3/15/08) Mariod Woodbury ’49 (2/18/09) Robert R. Cornwell ’49 (1/1/94) Richard D. Sutton ’50 Hon. John Webb ’50 (2/18/09) Charles Hoyt Jr. ’55 (10/8/08) David Sloan Jr. ’59 Emmit McLean ’77 writes “My father, Ernest C. McLean, Jr. ’48 passed away March 15, 2008. He enjoyed the many friendships that he had from his Phi Gam days and always looked forward to the annual trip to Greenville to see his fellow brothers from the 1940s and 1950s. I am proud to have followed in his footsteps as a Phi Gam.” ated Carolina’s NCAA Our undergraduates celebr See page 2 for how to championship...did you? tos if you were at submit your stories and pho the tourney. 778-110 SN Address Service Requested A 1950s Member Shares Some Great (and Almost Unbelievable!) Stories from his Graduate Years… Read Inside! Graduate Relations Processing Center P.O. Box 7007 Albert Lea, MN 56007-8007 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA Epsilon of Phi Gamma Delta, Inc. PRESORTED FIRST CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID State College, Pa. Permit No. 2 4 www.epsilonpgd.com April 2009