Pictures and News from Spring 2013 Alumni Weekend

Weekend highlights:

  • A great turnout this year. It was a big surprise.
  • Jeff Allen told the story of the first alumni weekend 40 years ago – way cool and worth retelling.

Chapter news:

  • Iota Chapter scholarship report ranks them number one among all fraternities and above the all men’s average. Great work actives!

House:

  • The maintenance fund will provide for a new hot water heater as well as minor up-keep and repairs.

The softball game:

  • Alumni 25 – Actives 5
  • Thanks the Spring Class of 2013 for their impartial call of the game.
  • Cort Greer played first base. And the alums still won 🙂

 

Ben Aderholt Recognized as Outstanding Adjunct from the University of Houston-Downtown

This news item, like so many, comes from Brother David Wilson, who came across an article about Brother Ben Aderholt in the Texas Bar Journal:

Ben L. Aderholt, a member in Looper, Reed & McGraw, P.C., received the 2012 Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award from the University of Houston-Downtown.  Aderholt has taught a commercial law course at the university for more than a decade.

Congratulations Brother Aderholt!

Alumni Weekend Schedule

As promised, here’s the schedule of events of this weekend, Iota’s 39th Alumni Weekend.

Friday, March 30:

7:00 p.m. – late:  Alumni and Guests Welcome Gathering at the House

Saturday, March 31:
11:00 a.m.: EC Meeting of Active and Alumni
12:00 p.m.:  Lunch
12:30 p.m. General Meeting
1:30 -4:00 p.m.:  Softball Game (played again this year at the Southwest Williamson County Regional Park softball fields, directions from campus here)
5:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m.:  Cook out / fire at booties (burn ban is lifted, its a rare opportunity!)
9:00 p.m. – late: Walburg / House Fun

Sunday, April 1:
Coffee. Donuts. Depart.

See you at the House!

Thomas Randall (“Randy”) Lankford dies at 69

We are saddened to report the passing of Brother Randy Lankford this past Saturday, February 18th, in Galveston, Texas.

As reported in the Galveston Daily News, a Memorial Celebration of Life will be held from 2:00 pm until 5:00 pm Saturday, February 25, 2012 at his residence in Galveston.

You can find Randy’s full obituary, a very colorful read, here: http://galvestondailynews.com/story/295126/

Brother Larry Rydell dies at 75

Brother Larry Rydell, a lifelong resident of Williamson County, died today at the age of 75. Larry was a 1960 graduate of Southwestern.

Visitation will be Friday, February 10th from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at Providence Funeral Home in Taylor.  Memorial services will be held Saturday, February 11th at 3:00 P.M. at Hutto Lutheran Church in Hutto.

Editor’s Note: thanks to Brother David Wilson for sharing the news of Brother Rydell’s passing.

A plea from struggling Actives

Greetings Iota Brothers,

We are Douglas Thayer and Stephen Brown, Iota Fall ’10 pledge class, and we’d like to help you with your next technical project. We’re both artistically as well as very technically inclined: Stephen is a third year computer science major with a background in software development and web-design, and Douglas (a senior) is a top-notch graphic designer with experience in a range of print and digital media. Our experience working together closely through the chapter means we can accomplish your project to your specific needs within a reasonable timeframe.
We have a particular reason for appealing to the brothers of Iota for your business – both of us are at Southwestern on a combination of loans and scholarship and are having trouble paying our chapter dues. The proceeds from our work would given entirely to the chapter treasurer in order to pay our dues in full and allow us to remain active members of the chapter. We’re open to any kind of project, but here’s a list of some of the things we do well:

-Web design (personal or business oriented)
-Software development
-Graphic design and corporate Logos
-IT work and computer repair
-Custom computer construction
-Mobile and tablet application development
-Home and business network setup

This list is by no means comprehensive! Our primary goal is to, by any way possible, pay our dues to the chapter and be in good standing. Please contact us if you have any project (technical or not) in mind and we can work it out – we’d be glad to do some landscaping too! We have a portfolio available upon request if you are interested.
We look forward to meeting all of you that we haven’t yet at the 125th next month!
AEKDB

Stephen Brown
4109197945 or browns at southwestern.edu
Douglas Thayer
8057045575 or thayerd at southwestern.edu

Roger Edward Davidson, 1926 – 2011

We learned this week of the recent passing of Brother Roger Davidson.

Roger was well known and loved by brothers of every generation.

Brother Alan Haworth reflected, “I remember, Roger came down in the summer of ’07 and helped us paint the house. I think he was 83 at the time. Flew down from Colorado to be there, helping rebuild the house. He was also John Tower’s roommate and best friend. He was at the Tower tree dedication in the early ‘90s when the Tower library was dedicated. Roger was a great man, a faithful brother, and steadfast in his dedication to Kappa Sigma. He will be missed but never forgotten!”

You can read Roger’s obituary from The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado here: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/gjsentinel/obituary.aspx?n=roger-edward-davidson&pid=154010417

Please feel welcome to add your good words to in the comments to this post.

Update: 125th Weekend Packages & Costs

Brothers,

I hope this letter finds you well on this October 12, 2011, the 125th birthday of The Iota Chapter of Kappa Sigma. We have a grand celebration planned for the weekend of November 4-6.

We are getting concerns and complaints that Iota’s Celebration is too expensive.

We are adding two categories to the registration to make it more affordable. There is no memorabilia included in either one. The alumni “Basic” is $85. The guest “Basic” is $75.

The new registration form has these additions. If you have already registered and have sent in your package and would like to change, let us know and we can do that.

Memorabilia will be for sale at the event on a first come first serve basis.

Our celebration is 3 weeks away. Southwestern will order food for the banquet depending on the numbers we give them. We will order our refreshments on the same numbers so help us out and don’t delay.

I hope this letter will help clarify any doubts and lead to a successful gathering of the brothers and their friends on November 4-6. Events like these come once every 25 years so call your worthless pledge brothers and make sure they will be there. Iota Chapter has a totally remodeled house just waiting for a celebration! Let’s give it one that will be remembered for years to come!

Happy Birthday Iota!

AEKDB

Erik Harpst

August 13th: Alumni/Active EC Retreat

We are going to hold the bi-annual EC retreat at 11 a.m. on 8/13 at the newly renovated house. Please let me know if you can attend via email or add a comment to this post. I’ve talked with the actives, and we should have nearly everyone.

We’ll have quite a few things to discuss. A rough agenda appears below. Let me know if you have any thing to add or remove.

House Updates
– Updates on renovations
– New House policies/rental agreement

125th Anniversary/Homecoming
– Dates and Info

Brotherhood Development
– Discussion

Please forward on to other alumni that would be interested in attending.

Thanks,

Tim

Join the Final Work Weekend – August 6th

from Alumni Adviser Tim Stapleton

FINAL WORK WEEKEND – Don’t miss your chance to leave a lasting (positive) impression on the on the house. Saturday, August 6th will be the next, and hopefully final, work weekend at the house. We still have a lot to do to ensure the house is ready for the new school year.

For those of you artsy folks, we have lot of paint prep work that needs to be done, but if the outdoors is more your thing, we have a lot of earthwork and gardening too. I’m sure we can find something up your alley!

Work will be going on all day, you can’t get there to early, and you can’t get there too late. Any time at all you can contribute will be greatly appreciated.

If you like working with your own tools, we can always use extra shovels, paint brushes, rollers, sand papers, blue painting tape, steel wool (various grades), water blaster or pressure washer, pruning tools, wire cutters, and strong backs. Be sure to label your tools before arrival.

There has already been a lot of volunteers who have already given a lot of their time and energy, it would be great to see you there.

Join Masters of Destruction Part 2, June 4-5

RSPV via Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169201776472278

What: Masters of Destruction (MOD) Weekend Part 2

Where: The House

When: Weekend of June 4th; sun-up to sun-down

Who: All actives and alumni are invited and encouraged to join the effort – that means you! Norwood Williams and Joe Abel are leading the effort.

How: Skills, sweat, tools, teamwork, and lots of fun along the way.

Why: The remaining tear work to be done includes: the head (another layer of sheetrock and flooring need to be removed), flooring in the kitchen needs to be removed, the carpet and possibly the subfloor in the old house mothers room needs to be removed,and a new deck put down. We need to do general ground works, etc.

Read Joe Abel’s report of MOD Part 1 here.

So please if you can come, come!