Phi Sigma Kappa - Purdue University

3 Phi Sigma Kappa Amidst Chapter House Construction, Undergraduate Brothers Forge Ahead with a Successful Fall Recruitment Phi Sig Brothers Leave a Lasting Impression Tom Howatt '71 Explains Why Delta Triton Deserves His Efforts W hen Tom Howatt '71 arrived at Purdue's campus, he was a National Merit Scholarship recipient looking for camaraderie and brotherhood. During his freshman year, Tom was the dorm consul for Wiley Hall. He had become disenchanted with dorm life and decided to enter recruitment. That's when he discovered Phi Sigma Kappa. "The men at Phi Sig were everyday guys like me. I came from a modest background and they were very welcoming during my visit. It immediately felt like somewhere that I would fit in." During his time at the chapter, Tom served as inductor and chapter president, which helped him gain useful experience for life after college. "It was a very formative period in my life. My years at Delta Triton gave me every chance to grow as a leader and as a person. At that time, we unfortunately didn't receive a whole lot of advice, but that oversight opened me up to make mistakes that weren't life-altering and I learned a lot and it built up a ton of quality characteristics because of it." Tom remembers the help he received from John VanHorn '58, the alumni adviser at the time. "John was welcoming, understanding, and nonjudgmental. He helped me deal with difficult circumstances in my life. I could really talk to him, he made me step back and realize how to make good decisions, especially after the fire that burnt down the house on Founder's Day 1971." Tom also remembers all the games that the brothers watched at the new Mackey Arena during the Rick Mount era. He graduated from Purdue in 1972 with a bachelor's of science in industrial management and received a master's of science from the Krannert School of Management in 1973. After leaving Purdue, Tom found employment with the Wausau Paper Mills Company. He rose through the company and after 20 years he was named president and CEO. Tom then retired in 2014 after serving Wausau Paper for 34 years. Tom now serves as chairman of the board of the Badger Institute, a conservative think tank. Tom is proud of his Purdue roots, especially his time at Krannert. Since 2002, he has served on the Krannert Dean's Advisory Council. When Tom is on campus, he often stops by the chapter house to meet the active members. "It really brightens my day when I go to campus for Homecoming each fall and meet the new members. College passes very quickly and there wasn't much contact between actives and alumni when I was there so I try to make that extra effort." Tom encourages the undergraduates to take full advantage of every opportunity they have to stretch themselves to utilize their full potential. As an alumnus, Tom is dedicated to the preservation of Delta Triton and the sense of belonging and accomplishment that comes from working toward a common purpose. "The chapter house has long been at the end of its useful life and it makes recruiting a great challenge; a new, modern chapter house at one of the most desirable locations on campus bodes well for the future of the chapter. I give to the Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future campaign because I want other young men to have the same opportunity to experience brotherhood and make lifelong friendships as I did." Tom and his wife, Mary, have been married for nearly 30 years. Since retirement, they spend their summers in Wausau, Wis., and their winters in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. You can connect with Tom at thowatt49@gmail.com. T his summer, the demolition of the old chapter house had left us with a unique challenge: conducting a successful recruitment without a place to hold events. Luckily, our recruitment chairman, Trent Jones '21, stepped up to meet the challenge. The entire brotherhood rallied around Trent, organizing and holding recruitment events around campus such as a pizza and poker event at the Krach Leadership Center, bowling at the Memorial Union, a video game night, a lawn party on the Krach lawn with ultimate Frisbee, cornhole, and football, grilling out at Squirrel Park, a retro board game night, and other impromptu events at the apartments. Our overall strategy of simply meeting new people and introducing them to our organization has demonstrated that the foundation of our brotherhood is evident to all even without our historic home. Thanks to the hard work of everyone, we were able to recruit one of our largest classes in a long time, and in November, we initiated 17 new members. For recruitment next semester, we'll have to change a few of the events around due to the weather, but we hope to see a similar outcome. In addition to our recruitment events, we also hosted a philanthropic event, Trim a Phi Sig, in September. During the event, friends and family bid during a silent auction on the chance to cut a brother's hair. If over $50 was raised, the brother whose hair was cut had to leave his hair the way it was cut for a full day. If over $100 was raised, temporary pink hair dye was introduced into the haircut. All of the proceeds went to benefit the Special Olympics. Brothers also had fun participating in Phi Sigma Rho's Phi Rho Your Boat event, in which we engineered and built a boat of cardboard, tape, and other recycled materials in order to race other teams across the pool. Continued on page 4 (1) Brothers participate in Trim a Phi Sig to raise funds for the Special Olympics. (2) New associate, Adam Kaufman '17, was so excited to receive his bid that he didn't even wait for a table to sign it.

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