Getting Joe to talk about Kappa Sigma is easy: The fraternity has been part of his life since 1943, so he has plenty of material on the subject. He is still actively involved. Even when the current colony is trying to get it’s charter back, he still feels it is his duty and privilege to keep the group moving into the future. Read on to hear Joe’s memories from his time with Kappa Sigma.
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The Beginning of It All
Back when I came to State College, the University was known as the Penn State College and Bob Higgins was the football coach. In fact, my 60th year reunion is coming up this spring. The Kappa Sigma house has changed dramatically during this time.
I chose to join Kappa Sigma fraternity because I had a good friend from Pittsburgh, Walt Price ’45, who rushed me. I was very impressed with him and with Kappa Sig, and figured if he belonged there, then it’d be a good influence on me. We were great friends ever since. He became a physician and was always interested in my wife’s well-being and any medicine related to multiple sclerosis (MS). (My wife is a victim of MS and has been in a wheelchair the last 20 years.) He and I often spent time together in Florida before he passed away.
I was initiated on January 7, 1943, and I’ve never regretted joining Kappa Sig. Many of us were inducted before we went to war. I already had joined the U.S. Air Force and was waiting to get called up when I became a Kappa Sig. When I was sworn into the services, Captain Forella, who was in charge of the recruiting office, had been made a second lieutenant during WWI by Burt Succop, a relative of mine. The captain really liked Burt and so he gave me my choice of a training base. I chose Miami Beach because it was warm in the winter and we got to stay in a hotel.
The House Well Becomes The Landing Zone
Our old Kappa Sigma house wasn’t large, but there were three levels and you were greeted by a big, open stairway as you came in the front door. The open area at the stairwell was called “The Well.” We used to get a 30-ft. Christmas tree and display it in the well every year. It was tough getting that tree in there, so we made the pledges do it.
The Well also was put to good use on party nights (we played hard and we worked hard). All of us were returning GIs from WWII, and quite a few had been parachute jumpers. So, we’d get a whole pile of cushions for the floor and we’d jump down The Well. It took a couple kegs of beer for most of us non-parachute jumpers to do that, though¾it’s a wonder we didn’t hurt ourselves.
Kappa Sigma Provides Leadership Lessons
I became president of the house after returning from the War, and being involved in the fraternity was a very good education: It taught me how to get along with people and communicate. I got to know my brothers really well, a number still are very close friends. Overall, it was a great group. We had a lot of loyalty¾that’s how you determine the brotherhood’s true wealth.
I also was manager of the swim team before and after my year of service. After the war, I recruited swimmers and we started the team back up again. That job was another good education. I was in charge of scheduling the meets, the hotels, ordering the food, keeping the swimmers happy. I’ll never forget the first time I took the team to Temple University. I was given a certain amount of money for the trip, so I called to get bids. I came back that first time and I had money leftover. I wanted to turn it back in, but the secretary had the manager talk to me. He gave me a lecture about waiting until the end of the season to gather all the excess funds, and then said I should keep it because I earned every penny! It was quite a job to keep all the swimmers happy and on-track.
As young men in general, we were all short on money and the GI bill was the greatest economic factor supporting us. Everyone was on it. Every month we would turn over our subsistence check to the chapter treasurer, and he would keep the room and board bill equal to what we received. The active chapter paid the daily bills, but capital expenses were the responsibility of the alumni. It was at that point that I realized how important the alumni were to us. Thankfully, our alumni were very actively involved with us.
We had a lot of physical problems with the house back then because it was getting old. When the heating finally gave out, the estimated cost to fix it was four or five thousand dollars. As chapter president, I called Lloyd Dickson, who was vice president of Rockwell Meter in DuBois, PA and president of Alpha-Delta at that time. He came up and guaranteed the furnace bill; he was a great help to us active members. He introduced me to a lot of the other alumni, some of whom included a local attorney, a local doctor, and the head of the State College Hotel, among many other prominent businessmen.
After that, I figured we better do a good job at homecoming, so I invited the alumni to stay at house. We had such a great turnout that the actives had to sleep on the floor so the alumni could have our beds… just part of the brotherhood spirit. In addition, the house would have one alumnus over for lunch or dinner each month. Our attentions paid off, too, because when we really needed help, they were there.
It wasn’t too long thereafter that we knew we had to do something about the house. The alumnus, Al Rockwell ’35 (see callout), was the first to propose building a new fraternity house. He put up $30,000 and said he would match it. He hired the contractor to build the new house and decided the house should be designed to function as an office building if things didn’t work out in the future.
Callout:
Willard Rockwell Jr., known as Al, had inherited his father’s companies and expanded them into a modern aerospace conglomerate, the Rockwell International Corporation. In 1981 he founded the Astrotech International Corporation, which promotes the commercial uses of space exploration. Al hired many Kappa Sigs who needed jobs back then. He retired in 1989 and passed away in 1992. He played a huge part in Kappa Sigma throughout his lifetime, even acting as president of the national fraternity for a time. He also was on the Board of Trustees at Penn State.
I had graduated by the time the house was complete, but I came back to help with breaking the ground and dedicating the house. It was larger than our previous one and probably never was filled. Unfortunately, fraternities were not too popular on campus then: they couldn’t provide the same room and board prices as dormitories could. When we dedicated the house, I remember Dean Warnock saying that we had “a lotta’ guts building a new fraternity house now.”
I always had strong feelings for our old house. After the new house was built, there was not as much camaraderie because of the layout being broken up into so many separate spaces (the original house was more open and encouraged togetherness).
I became president of the alumni association a number of years after graduation. Kappa Sig is probably one of the more successful fraternities, and I think the secret is scholastically training: setting up a good training program on drugs and alcohol. In the forties, when anyone drank to much, we made them go back to their room¾we would not put up with it. But these new kids don’t have the military service background and maturity that we did.
I’ll never forget one alumni day I was visiting during a football game against WV. The Nittany Lion mascot at that time was my son’s close friend, Roy Scott, and he came into the stands to see me and my son. A couple of drunk students near us began harassing the mascot until my son stood up and told the students to back off.
A Career That Came Full Circle
Originally, when I began college, I was in the agricultural school. I thought I wanted to be a landscape architect. But, when I came back from the service, I switched to become a Commerce and Finance major having realized I would be able to make a very good living at my first choice.
After graduating, I joined my family’s little mechanical rubber business as a salesman. I moved to Charleston, WV and covered a large territory. I did well and eventually moved back to Pittsburgh as the sales manager, then the executive vice president, and then the president. I liquidated the business in 1982 after many steel companies (my customers) went out of business, and had quite a job getting rid of the million-dollar inventory of specialty products. Then, I went to work as a salesman for an ex-employee of mine who had started his own business.
Joe’s Children Carry on the Penn State Tradition
I married Nancy Noah in 1958. We raised a family of two boys and two girls (one son and two daughters attended Penn State), and now have six grandchildren. I just formally retired last August and am trying to sell my house in the Fox Chapel Area School District of Pittsburgh. We now live at a retirement area run by the Mennonites in Penn Hall, Chambersburg, PA. It is only a couple hours from State college, so there are many Penn State alumni here; everyone seems to have season football tickets. My biggest hobby is gardening and helping with the rotary club. I also like to cook and take care of my wife. All that keeps me quite busy, plus my work with the fraternity.
The Star and Crescent Hopes to Continue Scholarship Tradition
Now, I am one of the three-member board of the Star and Crescent. This committee began in 1959 with seed money from Al Rockwell (the same alumnus who prompted the building of the new chapter house). The other two members, Tom Hill ’48 and Wesley Fitzsimmons ’95 help manage the money and determine the scholarship recipients. We also handle the Bill Simms ’40 Scholarship.
We give away two scholarships to Kappa Sigma men at Penn State every year. At $4000 a piece, these are the largest local scholarships. Tom did all the investing and has built it up so just the interest pays for the scholarships. Unfortunately, we put it to rest last year, but will restart it again when the colony becomes a full-fledged chapter. We think it will be a good “carrot” for rushing. We may need to change it to fit the new situation; get a larger board involved and extend it to three scholarships. We need to take the young men under our wing, and help teach them as alumni.