Beta Theta Pi - Purdue University

3 BETA THETA PI AT PURDUE UNIVERSITY CONTRIBUTORS (Up to $999) Frances Kerber In memory of Phil Kerber '54 Helen S. Tippet In memory of James Tippet '50 Edward K. Banker '47 In memory of William Cline '45 Wayne Lundy '47 George Harmon '49 In memory of Lee Harmon, my Beta sweetheart Robert B. Billman '52 Russell C. Stanley '53 In memory of Howard R. Meeker '48 and C. Richard Stanley '50 James R. Lankton '54 In memory of James K. Risk Jr. Robert R. Knepper Jr. '55 Eldon G. Black '56 James J. Obear '56 In memory of Donald P. Williams '56 In honor of Dick Petersen '56 John W. Randecker '56 Clifford A. Dunton '57 John Hoyt '57 James Shrack '57 Louis Zellers '57 George R. Caruso '58 David Young '58 Jim Pierce '59 In memory of Thomas G. Adams '59 Ralph R. Mason '60 John D. McDougle '60 Ronald Steenerson '60 Ronald Lockhart '62 Robert Lotz '62 Michal McClure '62 Richard H. Price '62 George Shortle '62 David E. Cox '63 Thomas Faulkner '63 Tom Gerber '63 In memory of David Malsbary '63 George Raub '63 In memory of G. David Malsbary '63 Phillip L. Zellers '64 In memory of David Malsbary '63 Allen Anderson '65 Michael O'Neall '66 Wm. A. Torrance '67 John Yencho '67 Birum G. Campbell III '69 Jerome Johnson '70 Michael Tucker '70 Frank Kaufman '71 Steve Keipper '71 Steven Longfellow '71 Charles G. Machledt '71 Michael S. Kady '72 William Keller '72 Steven W. Krein, M.D. '72 R. Stephen Linegar '72 Fredric P. Machledt '72 Joe Rierden '72 Thomas Popcheff '73 Craig Fread '77 Charles Comiskey '78 Bruce Parkinson '78 Thomas P. Heed '80 David P. Todd '82 Edward A. Fargo IV '83 Mark Peterson '83 Shay Jarrell '84 Brion Patt '85 Timothy S. Fox '86 Brian Black '88 Tim H. Dhillon '90 Darren Lueking '93 Dan Breier '94 Andrew C. Bauer '95 Ryan H. Kratz '95 David Nagel '95 Nicholas Clemens '01 Erik Henderson '01 Jeff Steurer '02 Michael J. Rusin '06 Matt Kraushar '07 Michael Burns '08 Barret Arthur '09 Michael J. Pfohl '11 In memory of Eric S. Pfohl '71 and Stormy Pfohl '50 Beau N. Pahud '12 Grant T. Hoover '14 Chris J. Trujillo '15 In honor of the Purdue Class of '15 Graduates E nrolling at Purdue as a freshman in September of 1940, I moved into a brand- new dorm building, Cary Hall West. Forming three-fourths of a quadrangle with East and South dorm wings, they were the main dorms for male students. I was assigned a room and I slowly made acquaintance with some dorm floor companions. I did not notice Ted Nordquist '47 until I went out for the freshman swimming team. Purdue only had one or two scholarship spots for swimming and diving. As the coach addressed his new candidates, he identified several by their high school or AAU performances. When he singled out Ted as a state medal winner in breaststroke and low board diving, I recognized Ted as someone from my dorm. We walked back to our rooms together and formed a strong friendship in the following weeks. Ted was from Gary, Indiana, where he had attended and swum competitively for Horace Mann High School. Ted and I bonded, taught each other to drink five cent glasses of beer with 15 cent shots of cheap whiskey, and with John Swenson '47, another Cary Hall resident, we joined Beta Theta Pi in our second semester. Ted and John were engineering students and I was enrolled in the school of science. The three of us moved into the Chapter House in September 1941, and were nursing post- initiation hangovers on Sunday, December 7, when the attack on Pearl Harbor was announced. Everything changed at that moment and many students adopted a fatalistic attitude about their future. Ted and John roomed together and played a little too hard. They were on academic probation by spring 1942 and were required to move out of the Chapter House until their grades improved. Both Ted and John buckled down in the summer session of 1942, and were back in the Chapter House by September. But as more and more Fraternity brothers and friends were called to service, and as Ted's grades started to slide, he and John both enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Before enlisting, Ted went home to Gary and married his high school sweetheart, Maxine Winsor. I never saw John again, as his B-17 was shot down over Mannheim/Ludwigschafen in 1945. I knew through bits and pieces of news that Ted had survived being shot down twice in his P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter, and though suffering burns, completed more than 50 combat missions. I stayed in school until my ROTC class was called up in March of 1943. I returned to Purdue in spring of 1946 with my wife of two years, Mary, and we moved into a rented duplex at 336 S. Chauncey St. There we shared our half of the duplex with Faye and Jackson O'Connell. Campus student housing was extremely tight as GI returners poured back to school on the GI Bill. I visited the Chapter House a few times to check on the status of returning classmates. Many were still unmarried and moved back into the house. From one of them I learned that Ted and Maxine lived in a trailer just around the corner from us. Our friendship was renewed and we shared meals, beer, and bridge games that summer of '46 and through the '46-'47 school year. We also went together occasionally to Purdue football and basketball games. A MEMORIAL TO A FRIEND Davis "Dave" Shryer '47 Shares the Story of Beta Brother Ted Nordquist '47 (Continued on page 4) Smiling at the camera at the 1946 Beta Mu winter formal is Ted's wife, Maxine Winsor Nordquist, who two months later became his widow. Across from Maxine, facing the camera, is Ted Nordquist '47, who would have earned his bachlor's of science in June had he lived. On Ted's right is William Strickland '48. On his right is Dave's spouse (later divorced), Mary Bowlby Shryer. Dave Shryer '49 is in unform at the rear, because as he confesses, "my old tuxuedo no longer fit." To Dave's right is Bill Mignin '49.

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