Pictured above: Annual Michigan Beta Ski Trip. Top row: (Left to right) Bruce Lewis, Dave deSteiger, Chet Hojnicki, Jere L’Heureux, Bryan Ford, Scott Smith. Bottom row: (Left to right) Brad Theodoroff, John Goodwin, John Miller, Kirk Brown and David Miller. Not pictured: Jim Tuerk, Bill Brennan and Dave Ledebuhr, Gene Lovasco.
Tell me about your undergraduate fraternity experience. Why did you choose Phi Delta Theta, and do you have any favorite memories you would like to share?
I joined Phi Delta Theta in the fall term of my sophomore year in the fall of 1978. I never really looked back. It was just a great experience; I met so many great people. It went by so quickly, and as I look back these forty-something years later, I don’t know what I would have done without it.
I met my wife, Suzy, through Phi Delta Theta. She was a Sigma Kappa, and on September 1, we will be married for forty years. We met in the waiting room to be interviewed for the senior class council. I learned about this student organization from my fellow brothers. I didn’t make a good impression on her then, but I had another chance encounter that led to a change of opinion. Mutual friends were attending a Purdue football game for the weekend, but I could only go for the day. Suzy could also only go for the day, and her friend suggested riding with this guy she knew. When I showed up in the car, she saw who was driving. Boy, oh boy, if looks could kill. Long story short, we finally got to know each other. And we went down to the football game at Purdue, and then she ended up asking me to her formal. Three Sigma Kappas were in the back of that car, and a really good friend, a Phi Delt named Ron Aubrey, ’82. One of her friends recently flew out to visit us in Michigan from Oregon.
Do you feel that Phi Delta Theta made a difference in your life?
I got a job right out of placement services at Michigan State and went to work for a flooring manufacturer named Armstrong. I was a sales rep for them, and they transferred me all over the US. At each place, there was a Phi Delt brother whom I knew from Michigan State. One of my first assignments was in Peoria, Illinois. My big brother in the Fraternity happened to live there briefly when I got there. And, once again, the Phi Delt bond was there. We moved to Chicago and then Charlotte and had Phi Delt friends there. Same when we got to Texas. I did a triathlon with Karl Braun, ’79, and The Bond followed us to California and Colorado. Finally, we moved back to Michigan.
Who or what inspired you to become a volunteer?
I think we just kind of found each other. I attended an alumni luncheon in Grand Rapids. Our chapter had recently been closed. I met Larry Schramm, Michigan ’78, and current General Council Treasurer Nat Love, Michigan ’81, who was Sigma North province president during the majority of my volunteer tenure at this luncheon. Larry told me, “you got to get your house back up and going.” He invited me to a meeting at their chapter house since they were recently inducted back into the Fraternity. Through Larry, I met the Past President of the General Council and Warden Mike Scarlatelli, Kettering ’76, and both of them really came through for our chapter by getting a meeting with Michigan State to consider bringing us back to campus. Being an alcohol-free housing fraternity convinced the university to say yes. Mike’s son Nick, ’15, is a refounding father from this time. Mike was also instrumental in getting the Michigan Beta house corporation approved for a loan through the Palmer Foundation. The support of General Headquarters is how we managed to raise the money for the house and get reinducted. Fraternity CEO (then COO) Sean Wagner gave us a roadmap that began with us starting our fundraising efforts. Dave Ledebuhr, ’80, was indispensable when it came time to sell the chapter house for us, and who wisely created a clause in the contract that ensured we could buy it back should we ever be in a place to do so. Thankfully, that came to pass when Michael Boulter, Kettering ’12 (then leadership consultant, now Sigma North province president) helped us find and induct forty guys. Mark Merlanti, ’80, and, and Bill Brennan, ’80, were always a phone call away anytime we needed any legal advice.
How has volunteering for Phi Delta Theta enriched your personal and professional life?
I have met so many brothers I would never have met without volunteering for Phi Delta Theta. For instance, around 2015, during the time we were fundraising for the house, some of the brothers I met while advising the chapter and as alumni club president were planning a ski trip to Colorado. My contact at Pennington had me contact John Miller, ’52. He owned the back half of Aspen Mountain, and I called him out of the blue, and he said, “Are you coming?” And I said, “Well, we’re coming with about six or seven guys.” And he replied, “Great. Have you bought lift tickets yet?” When I replied that we don’t, he said, “Don’t buy them; I’ve got free passes to Snowmass in Aspen.” He was eighty-nine at the time, and all of us were in our 50s. We went back every year until last year when John had to move into a retirement facility. We made it a point to go to Aspen every year. And all of it was to see him. John would come out to dinner with us every year. And we’d go and watch the Super Bowl at his house. And I think the most fun part is that there are several graduating years on this trip. And then there’s John Miller, who graduated in 1954, and he would show up with his cheerleading sweater on.
And he was just so cute, and one time he said to the group, we had about eleven or twelve guys around the table, and he goes, you know, guys, I love my kids. And he had seven of them, you know, love my kids, but they’re just all over me. And he goes in this, this night out. And seeing you guys just gives me freedom. In fact, one year, he was working out as he went to physical therapy every day at the hospital. He had a stroke, and I don’t know how bad it was, but they had to airlift him out. His daughter happened to be in town and told him, dad, you had a stroke. He replied, well, that’s fine, I don’t care. I’m going to dinner tonight with the guys, and his medics say no. Your cheek is almost hanging down your shoulder. I think we’re going to have to airlift. He goes, no, I’m going out with the guys. And he fought. He was airlifted, and he couldn’t make it that night, but he fought it, and it was, like I said, there’s the Phi Delt bond again, right?
What would you tell someone who is considering volunteering for Phi Delta Theta?
It’s really simple: You’ll always get more back than you give. I ask every student I meet to remember to transmit Phi Delta Theta Fraternity better than it was transmitted to them. As a saying, it sounds corny, but it was always, transmit the Fraternity better than it was transmitted to you. And to me, that’s being the greatest version of yourself. It sounds really corny, but it’s from the heart. I mean this: I owe Phi Delta Theta so much in my life that giving back as a volunteer, like I said, was nothing compared to what I got back from all of that.
Do you have any advice for current students?
I would tell all of them never to feel like they’re alone. Ever. There’s always somebody you can reach out to. I would also encourage any current Phi Delt student to reach out to any brother or alumnus anytime if and when they need support. If they’re looking for a job and it’s in a certain industry, it’s so easy to go to the Phi Delt networking group on LinkedIn and see who’s in the industry of choice. Then, you could reach out or call those people. You know what? I have called so many people out of the blue that never knew who I was. And because I was a Phi Delt, they cleared off their schedule and chatted with me. So I would say to the students that support is always there.