Chi Alumni gather in NYC
(From left to right: Jonathan Hammond ‘20, Will Seidel ‘14, Max Lindsay-Capobianco ‘23, Rocco Danese ‘23, Will Hitchcock ‘23, Rad Savage ‘19, Will Spencer ‘16, Padraig Duna ‘14)

The heat may have been sweltering, but that didn’t stop a number of New York City Chi alumni from celebrating the summer. On July 26, eight Chi Delts ranging from the Class of 2014 to 2023 got together to share their Kenyon experiences and learn more about each other’s lives. Recent graduates had a chance to learn from their fellow brothers how best to navigate the post-college environment, while other alumni had the opportunity to learn more about the state of the chapter and reminisce on their shared experiences.

All in all, it’s not a surprise that Chi Chapter’s alumni network remains strong and connected. Make sure to let us know of other gatherings throughout the country!

With summer winding down, it means a new school year is right around the corner. Soon, another class of students will be back on campus and in town, ready to experience another great year at Kenyon.

Of course, students aren’t the only ones who will be back in town!

What are some places around Gambier that you can’t wait to get back to this year? Are you planning any nights at The Village Inn or Legends with your Delta Tau Delta buddies?

Is your favorite hangout spot the same as it was when you were a student? How have things changed around town in the years since you graduated?

We want to know! Share your thoughts with us HERE and be featured in an upcoming eLetter!

Did you receive your Spring 2023 edition of The Chi Delt? If not, you’re missing out!

If you didn’t receive your copy in the mail, send your current mailing address to us at [email protected] and let us know to add you to the Chi Chapter at Kenyon mailing list.

To read the digital newsletter on our alumni website, CLICK HERE.

Thank you to these fine gentlemen listed below in the 2022-23 Honor Roll for their continued support of Chi Chapter! Because of them, we have been able to not only support our chapter, but support the alumni through communications, reunions, and financing.

View the Honor Roll here!

Our giving year ends 8/31/2023, and we still have time left to give! If you have not already given this year, please consider a gift and earn your spot on this year’s Honor Roll!

DONATE HERE

Are you plugged in to the Chi chapter social media pages? Follow us to reconnect with your alumni buddies online, find out about upcoming virtual and in-person events, and keep up with the latest news from the fraternity.  

Chapter Facebook Page: Kenyon Delts

Chapter Instagram: @kenyondelts

Chapter LinkedIn Group: Chi Chapter Alumni Association

Delta Tau Delta is the place where we had a lot of firsts. It’s the place where we first ventured out of our hometowns, the first place we bonded to on campus, and the place where we first learned the true meaning of friendship and how to be real men. Read on to see what your brothers said on how Delta Tau Delta impacted their lives.

“Freshman year, Karl Starek ‘86 showed me how to be a good and kind human,” Jeff Moritz ’86 said. “His actions one morning taught me how to accept personal responsibility, apologize and show respect to another brother. I use this life lesson often and have tried to instill this in my own children.”

Richard Schori ’60 said that Walter Taylor and Jim Cox made a big impact on him during his time at Kenyon. “They were great brothers to whom I could easily relate,” he said. Bill Swing ‘58 was another brother who had Richard’s back — both during his time at school and years later. “He was two years ahead of me, became an Episcopal Bishop, and was a great support in later years,” Richard said.

Ben Huizinga ’14 values the “unwavering” friendships built through his connection to Delta Tau Delta above all else: “I could call up any brother at any time and they are happy to support me, talk, etc. There is no expectation and nothing but love between us all,” he said.

How did Delta Tau Delta impact you? CLICK HERE to share your story with us and be featured in an upcoming eLetter!

The names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty, but rest assured this is a real event that took place in Leonard Hall and surrounding grounds in 1967. Herrmann Heidelberg was a Chi Delt who was not a stellar student. He spent his time for three years and seven months playing cards all through the night and slept through classes. He earned his way through college by winning at these games against fellow students who were of some wealth and could afford to lose. The only class Herrmann attended was statistics because the examples were often card games hinging on probabilities of winning and losing. Somehow, he managed to get a C on his classes but how remains a mystery to this day.  

But then came the reality of trying to graduate, which involved taking comprehensive exams of over everything over the last two years of his major, economics. He was in fact panicked and everyone knew he would be because of his failure to attend classes. There were less than 100 guys in the graduating class. 

It was a stupendously wonderful mid-May day, trees in blossom, the warm air cutting off any remnant of the chill of winter’s air. Herrmann, contemplating his future, strolled down the fourth floor from Middle Leonard (the Delts) to South Leonard (Betas). He chanced to peer out of a south window and see Chauncy Pimplenail, lying on a blanket sunning himself. This was nearly oxymoronic in that his skin was so pale that he could have gotten sunburnt in the Arctic in the winter. He also because of the nature of his gait appeared to be the missing link between man and penguin. In a word he was not virile. The third and most important characteristic to the point of this story is that he had was that he was very, very serious about everything. His seriousness was exceeded only by his deep booming voice. A nice guy with some idiosyncrasies, but you might say, dead serious. 

Herrmann, not so distressed about comps to have lost his sense of humor, stood up in the window frame overlooking Chauncy and exclaimed, “I can’t take the pressure, I am going to flunk, my parents will never forgive me. Four years, down the drain. I am going to jump!” Chauncy gets up on his feet as best he can and yells in his deep, booming, authoritative voice up to Herrmann,  

“Don’t jump, don’t jump!! I will come up to save you!!” Whereupon Chauncy went as fast as he could to the Beta stairwell and ascended forthwith. 

Herrmann, quick of wit, ran over to the Delt stairwell, clambered down the stairs, ran out to the spot on the ground that he would have landed on had he jumped AND THEN he laid SPREAD EAGLE. Chauncy going up the Beta stairwell and finally arriving on the fourth floor, well after Herrmann had departed, looked around, and saw no Herrmann. Chauncy went to the window in question, looked down, and there was Herrmann deader than a door nail, spread eagle. He yelled to anyone who might be listening,  

“Oh my God, he has killed himself!!!” 

 Now in real panic, Chauncy is really hustling down the Beta stairwell and mid-way runs into, you guessed it, Herrmann. Chauncy splutters, “You just killed yourself! What is happening?!!”  

Herrmann replies, “I just stunned myself, I am going to jump again!!!!!”  

Monday morning, Chancy was into see the Dean of Students to discuss the matter of students jumping out fourth story windows and not killing themselves—seriously. 

Hermann barely scraped through economics but got an A+ in drama. The incredible thing is that he turned out to be a successful businessman in Chicago. Chauncy went into a career in library science, fitting himself quite well, working eventually the Library of Congress, serious business. For the most part we hope he didn’t run into such pranksters as there were at Kenyon. 

Submitted by Tim Holder ’68.

Brother Richard G. “Dick” Evans Jr. ’55 passed away Aug. 25, 2022, in Savannah, Georgia. He was 89. A graduate of Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, Dick joined the Air Force ROTC and Delta Tau Delta at Kenyon. He played football and was an accomplished lacrosse midfielder, co-captaining the team to an undefeated season his senior year. Dick’s father R. “Gale” Evans ’26 P’55 H’75, uncle Benjamin D. Evans ’25, and two other relatives led his path up to the Hill. Dick’s parents were married in the Kenyon College Chapel in November 1930.

After graduation, Dick began working at the Cincinnati Cordage and Paper Co., founded by the Evans family in 1892. Dick reported for active Air Force duty in 1956 and, within a year, was flying KC-97G refueling aircraft. While stationed in West Palm Beach, Florida, his flight school classmate, Ted Platt, introduced him to Nancy Taylor – whose sister Ted was dating. Soon the two Air Force friend became brothers-in-law, as they married the Taylor sisters. Dick flew refueling missions for B-47s and B-52s over Canada, Labrador and Greenland as part of the Eighth Air Force and the Strategic Air Command before returning to civilian life in 1959 after the birth of his first daughter, Pam.

Settling in Cincinnati, Dick rose to become executive vice president of Cordage Papers by 1976, helping grow the company from five to 13 loca­tions before retiring in 1992. In 1978, Dick granted a request from the College for 24,000 pounds of paper – three years’ worth – to print the Kenyon Review, a gift without which its revival might not have happened.

Dick retained his passion for flying, eventually bought a Beechcraft Bonanza, and often flew with Nancy to Mount Vernon’s airfield to attend the Kenyon volleyball games of their daughter, Barbara J. Evans ’87. After Dick retired, he and Nancy built a home in Savannah, pursued their love of golf and boating, and enjoyed frequent visits by family and friends. Dick is survived by Nancy and his daughters Pamela Barry, Lynn Huber and Barbara.

Courtesy of the Kenyon Alumni Magazine.

Several years ago, Brother Phil Hammond ’58 shared his Delta Tau Delta love story with us. It is reprinted here with his permission.

“When I was in high school in the early 50’s in Columbus, OH (actually, my high school was Upper Arlington High School), I attended the First Community Church, which had a very active youth group. I met a girl there. She was two years ahead of me and attended Grandview High School, our high school’s arch rival. Her name was Connie Conklin and I had a crush on her. Coincidentally, our fathers knew each other and our parents were social friends.  

When she graduated from high school, she went to Ohio Wesleyan and pledged Kappa Alpha Theta. She became pinned to Bruce Richardson ‘55, the Delt president at Kenyon. I was not a jock, other than golf, and did letter my two years at Kenyon, 54-56. I am sure Connie convinced Bruce to get the Delts to pledge me, for which I was eternally grateful. Bruce graduated in 1955 and I dated Connie my second, and last, year at Kenyon, despite our age differences. She was three years older than I, as I had skipped a grade in elementary school. During her last year at Ohio Wesleyan, she was the Theta president.  

After two years at Kenyon, I transferred to Ohio State for my third year, took my fourth year abroad and returned to OSU in the fall of 1958 to start law school. After my first year of law school, I spent the summer in Los Angeles working as a law clerk to the Sears & Roebuck west coast counsel. 

When I returned to Columbus to start my second year of law school, the Friday night in September before the first OSU football game, I went to the Delt house on campus to see if anything was going on. Since there wasn’t, I walked next door to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house. There were four Kappas sitting on the front porch and I asked if any of them wanted to go out for a beer with me. Corky Hummon raised her hand and we had a pleasant beer together. The next afternoon I walked to the stadium with her to watch the football game. Shortly thereafter, we each got pinned, but to different people.  

My pinmate graduated after my second year in law school and moved to CA. At the start of the winter quarter in my third, and last year of law school, I called the Kappa house, looking for a date. I asked to speak to Corky Ballentine but was informed that the only Corky at the Kappa house was Corky Hummon, so I asked for her. By that time she was the sorority president. I asked her out, she accepted, and we dated until we both graduated at the end of spring quarter. Corky took a job with United Airlines as a stewardess and was based in Los Angeles. After six months in the Ohio National Guard, to avoid being drafted, I took a job with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as a fledgling trial attorney. I was to report to the NLRB office in Albuquerque, NM, but the day before I left to drive to Albuquerque, I received a phone call from the NLRB office in Washington, D. C., asking if I could go to Los Angeles instead. 

Of course, I said yes. Corky and I hooked up again and were married six months later in June of 1962. We celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary this past June. We have two sons and five grandchildren, twins and triplets who were born two months apart in 2001 and who are all now 14 years old and freshmen in high school. The twins live with their parents in Sandwich, MA, which is on Cape Cod, and the triplets live with their parents in Scottsdale, AZ, fifteen minutes from us.”  

Brothers, we have less than 4 months left in our 2022-2023 giving year, which began on 9/1/2022. So, we are reaching out to you with a reminder to donate before the giving year ends on 8/31/2023, and earn your spot on the Honor Roll of Donors. Alumni support is the heart and soul of our fraternity, here’s why giving back is so important… 

Because being a donor is being a leader—seeing your name on the Honor Roll of Donors inspires others to join you by making their own gift. You don’t have to stop there, make a personal invitation to a fellow brother to join you on the Honor Roll. Remind him that without alumni support, we cannot carry on.

Because—if you’re like me—your fraternity experience helped to shape the person you are today and gave YOU invaluable gifts like leadership experience, interpersonal skills, lifelong friendships and more. Because of these invaluable experiences, we remain resolved that as long as Kenyon exists, Delta Tau Delta will thrive there. 

We would like to thank those brothers who have generously contributed to Delta Tau Delta Kenyon this giving year. Can you help us reach our goal before 8/31/2023?   

If you have not yet made your gift, add your name to the Honor Roll by using any of the following methods:   

• Click here to give online;   
• Call our toll-free Donation Hotline at 1-800-975-6699;  
• Mail a check to our donation processing center:

Delta Tau Delta – Chi Chapter

Alumni Relations Processing Center

P.O. Box 7007

Albert Lea, MN 56007-8007 

Story and photo courtesy of Whitney Thompson & Jeffcoach press release.

WTJ is growing again! Our firm is excited to announce its merger with Fresno-based firm Betts & Rubin. The distinguished firm has merged into WTJ as of August 1, 2022, bringing local, longtime attorneys Jim Betts & Joe Rubin to our team. These seasoned attorneys will be huge assets to us, as they both bring decades of experience serving California clients.

Jim Betts is one of the top trial attorneys in the area. His career is highlighted by a long history of trial success and his membership with the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). Betts has experience in Federal and State Court jury trials, and regularly represents both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of cases including business litigation, employment law, agricultural claims, and personal injury. His longtime partner, Joe Rubin, also comes to WTJ with a long, successful career primarily in public entity work.

We value the deep-rooted, well-deserved respect both attorneys have earned in the legal community, and are proud to announce them as part of the WTJ team!

Bob Stevenson ’59. Bob was an economics major who later joined the Air Force and went to law school. He worked at Kmart for 30 years as the Vice President of Public Affairs. After retiring in 1995 he did arbitration, mediation and was an attorney for Bloomfield Village.  

Bob and his wife, Sue have been married for 57 years. Together they have three sons and five grandchildren.  

“When I was at Kenyon, our house was known for the jocks,” Bob remembers. “I played football, and I was on the lacrosse team for two years even though I wasn’t very good.” 

Delta Tau Delta was a time of learning and laundry. “Dan Smith, Fred Burgold and I ran the campus laundry,” he says. “We all scattered after graduation, but I still see Dan sometimes in Naples, Florida.” 

“That laundry service paid off when we’d take that 1937 Packard laundry delivery hearse for the occasional road trip,” he says. 

Bob says a key to success at the house was living together. “Learning to live with everybody was important,” he shared, “and I hope that tradition never goes away.” 

We hear it time and time again when we talk to brothers about Delta Tau Delta, there are certain brothers that when you think about your time at Kenyon, always stick out. Whether it be them helping you in your first year at college, or your favorite party buddy, we all have that one guy that sticks out in our mind. Hear what three of your brothers had to say about the impact they had on their lives.

“Freshman year, Karl Starek ‘86 showed me how to be a good and kind human. His actions one morning taught me how to accept personal responsibility, apologize and show respect to another brother. I use this life lesson often and have tried to instill this in my own children.” -Jeff Moritz ’86

“I have had a close relationship with Jake Thorn ‘14, a pledge brother, since our time at the house. There are too many times to count where we have offered each other advice / support and challenged each other when necessary. This has continued past our undergraduate days and into the time when we are both raising children and seeing our families grow.” -Ben Huizinga ‘14

“Bill Swing ‘58 was two years ahead of me, became an Episcopal Bishop, and was a great support in later years.” -Richard Schori ‘60

CLICK HERE and let us know which one of your brothers left the biggest impact on you to this day! 

In 1968 the Kenyon agreed to house students at our Lodge.  The room fees allowed the alumni association to pay the mortgage on the new lodge and provided revenue to fund ongoing operating expenses and repairs of the lodge.

In January 2023, Kenyon informed the Alumni Association that they no longer would allow Delts to be housed at the Lodge after the current school year.  This decision will have a major negative financial impact and jeopardize the ability of the alumni association to keep the Lodge open.  The alumni association receives over $17,000 each year in room fees which, along with the Chapter’s annual lodge payment, pays for all operating expenses of the building (taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance etc).

The alumni association is now faced with replacing this lost revenue through increased donations, increasing the Chapter’s annual lodge payment or a combination of the two.  If these revenues are not replaced, the alumni association will have no choice but to sell the property.  Under the terms of the deed, Kenyon College has first right of refusal to purchase the property.  A committee of alumni are currently analyzing fundraising options as well as working with the College on possible solutions.

With Jeff Moritz’s resignation and assuming a funding solution can be successfully addressed, an alum will need to provide oversight and management of the property.  Direct oversight of the property by an alum is critical to the long-term viability of the property.  Without an alum providing oversight the alumni association will be forced to sell the property.

Regardless of whether the Lodge remains open, Chi Chapter is in good standing and will continue to exist.  If the decision to sell the property is made it will certainly be a major blow to Chi Chapter and a loss of a key asset.

Golf: Brothers Garrett Thesing, Logan Spiess, and Ethan Shapiro with Delt Alum Gregor Bates ’22. Golfers were staying at brother Shapiro’s course, Kiawah Island Ocean Course.

Baseball: Sam Richards

Lacrosse: Nathan Junk

Tennis: Rakkan Audeh, Evan Dean, and Rishil K

Last semester, the brothers of Chi were honored with receiving the highest overall GPA of any Greek organization with a 3.55 overall GPA.

The photos include current vice president Luke Wilson (Physics Major), Ian Weihe (Economics and Mathematics Major), and former academic chair and current sergeant and arms Garrett Thesing (Molecular Biology Major). 

Photo: Marine Corps Marathon

Alex Hetherington ’89, one of the founders of the Chapter’s Byron Horn Alumni Leadership Panel, was recently appointed director of the Marine Corps Marathon. Now, we are looking for a group of alumni volunteers that would like to form a Kenyon DTD team in the upcoming Marine Corps Marathon this fall! You can learn more about the group and their upcoming events here. If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to [email protected].