Sigma Alpha Epsilon - Purdue University

Page 3 S A E I n the summer of 1959 I was awarded a NROTC scholarship at Purdue. I came from a mid-sized high school with a great academic program. I was a starter on the football team for three years and was the only Honor Society member on the team, didn't drink or smoke, and was an active member of my church youth group. My first semester I earned a 5.43 GPA in the freshman engineering program and was selected to the freshman engineering honorary fraternity. This apparently got the attention of the brothers who had decided to emphasize academics for future new member classes, starting with spring of 1960. As it turned out my class had one of the highest GPAs of all the fraternities that spring. There was no mention of my slide rule that usually hung from my belt or the old bicycle with the extremely large basket on the front that I rode to classes. After a successful recruitment period, I was initiated and moved into the house in the fall of 1960. I remember my small two-man study room and the large common area dorm with continuous exhaust fans and electric blankets covered with plastic sheets to protect from the accumulating snow. In later years, I lived in the tower on the third floor. The following year the emphasis on academics was to be continued and I was elected to be the new member trainer for the next class. It was a great year and we all coexisted as members of a family. This was a great class with grades almost as high as my own class. Since my discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1969, I have received and read The Lion's Tale on a regular basis. In the last few issues I have started to realize that I do miss the experience of my college fraternity years and the brothers I was close to: Wayne (McIntyre '64) and his late meals in the kitchen where I was often cleaning up, Sals (Larry Salsbury '62) and our chess and heart games, food fights in the dish washing areas, the old potato peeler, the "stolen" orange sherbets and grape juice floats, sledding down the front hill in the large stainless steel salad bowl and getting caught by the housemother, class actions with my blessing to resist being thrown in the river and, instead, throwing in some of the actives. I even miss the choir practices for Mother's Day that I disliked and often skipped. As I read the list of donors for our house remodel, I see many names of the two classes I was part of and realize I need to be on that list. A pledge is being forwarded from me with this writing. It is not very big and will need to be stretched out over the years due to the bad timing of the purchase of Pacific Seacraft the week before the stock market crashed. Finally things are looking good for us as we are building a 44' "go fast" sailboat for Jimmy Buffett that was launched earlier this summer. To all the brothers in the classes of 1960 and 1961, I challenge you to make our two classes the first to have 100% donor participation. To Wayne, a special thank you for all your work. Anyone receiving this note is offered a tour of the Pacific Seacraft factory in Washington, N.C. We are only an hour from the Outer Banks. Now that I am past 75, I would like to be with any of you anywhere in the not-too-distant future. Happy sailing, Reid Brodie '63 rbrodie3@gmail.com a new emphasis on academics aT indiana BeTa (Continued on page 4) indiana BeTa sees increase in Gpa, memBership, and overaLL moraLe I hope this message finds our distinguished alumni in good spirits. As another semester at 406 Littleton draws to an end, it is time for a bit of reflection on how far we have come since school began in August. campaiGn BoosTs moraLe First and foremost, with phases 1 and 2 of our multimillion-dollar renovation being completed, morale at the Lodge has not seen levels this high in years, and we have our excellent alumni support to thank for this. Phase 3 is expected to be completed by September 2018 and we will complete the largest chapter house overhaul that Indiana Beta has ever seen. With all the excitement over the renovation, it is important to not forget the intangibles of what makes Indiana Beta one of the premier chapters in the nation. academics and acTiviTies The active brothers of Indiana Beta have a lot to be proud of, and we hope you feel the same as we do. We currently boast a 3.1 cumulative chapter GPA (top five on campus!) with goals of improving to 3.2 by the end of the semester. We also recently celebrated our biannual Paddy Murphy Week of philanthropy where we hosted a petting zoo on Memorial Mall and a bubble soccer tournament at the co-rec fields. It was a tremendous success. We plan to fundraise dollars through the winter months into the spring with all proceeds going to the Indiana Beta initiated 46 new members into the brotherhood this fall. Congratulations to Indiana Beta for bringing home a third-straight intramural football championship.

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