Page 4 - The Illinois Sig - Fall 2017

Chapter/Alumni News

Chapter Neal Hammon ’48 (continued from page 1)

Executive Board What was it like coming back to Illinois af- After graduation, how did you stay in
ter WW II?
touch with your chapter brothers?
It was very nice seeing old friends on cam- I enjoyed dropping by the school to visit
Consul pus again, but there were so many Sigma Chi the chapter house. In 1949, not long after I
Jordan Meadows brothers that we had to open a second house had graduated from college and was working
next door to the main chapter house to ac- as a civilian, I drove up to Illinois to visit some
Pro Consul commodate everyone. Bidwell’s was always a friends after their exams, and on a whim, sev-
Riley Myles comfort. Significant Sig Ruck Steger ’48 was eral of us ΣΧs decided to visit New Orleans
a friend of mine, but being a vet from WW for Mardi Gras. One of our Phi Delt friends
AnnotAtor
Jack Mahoney II, I was recalled for the Korean War, and we was with us, but somewhat inebriated, and
did not see each decided to come along. The next morning,
House MAnAger other much af- driving thru Memphis, the Phi Delt woke up,
Liam Griffin ter that. If you and he remembered that he had an exam that
like great stories, day. It was either hitchhike back to school, or
QuAestor here is one about continue the trip with us. He chose the latter.
Andrew Martineau Ruck …
Back in In your career, what did you enjoy most
MAgister as an architect?
Joe Chignoli 1947, Illinois
played and beat I enjoyed designing buildings, but in most
risk MAnAger UCLA in the cases, I was restrained by economic factors.
John Lampros Rose Bowl. Ruck My clients usually wanted a better building
was on the first than they could afford. The most difficult
stewArd team. When we part of architecture was keeping up with all
George Deligiannis all got back to the government regulations pertaining to the
school after the building design. It seemed like every year we
soCiAl CHAirs
Luke Ortegel Tommy Abrams Christmas-New Ruck Steger & his wife. had to acquire three or four books because of
Year’s break, he the new building codes.
sCHolArsHiP CHAirs told us fellows who did not get to see the
Rick Hatton Ben Jones game about something that happened to him. At what point did you embrace the farm-
Ruck said that the team had a play where they ing life?
MediA direCtor faked the ball to him, and he started around I finally took the big step a year after I re-
Nicholas Bleidorn tackle pretending to be the man carrying the turned from Korea. I married Barbara Bidwell,
ball. Each time they used that play, it worked who was a Kappa Delta at the University of
rusH CHAirs
Peter Paxinos Anthony Greco out very well, and they were making good Kentucky. After the birth of our first child, I
Charlie Yale Tommy Abrams yardage, and so they kept using it, and every bought a house using the GI Bill; as a veter-
Justin McGowan Joe Garibotti time they used it, a UCLA linebacker would an, we were allowed a low interest rate, so the
tackle Ruck. Finally, near the end of the third mortgage payments were very reasonable. After
dAds’ dAy CHAirs quarter, the UCLA linebacker tackled Ruck a tornado destroyed one home, and a lightning
Eric Ziegler Anthony Bellanca again, and as they were getting up, he looked strike burned down the rebuild, we decided
over at Ruck and said “Ain’t you got the ball maybe it was time to move out to the country.
HistoriAn again?” Ruck and all the Sigma Chi brothers
Quinn Julian When did you develop an interest in writing?
thought that was very hilarious.
All architects must be able to write. On
derby dAys CHAirs
Charles Spring George Deligianni each job, we prepared a book (called ar-
chitectural specifications) that contains
PHilAntHroPy CHAirs between 120 to 300 pages, depending
Tucker Goebeler Eric Ziegler upon the complexity of the building. I
was always interested in history, partic-
House iMProveMent CHAir ularly subjects that others had ignored.
George Deligiannis
(continued on next page)
brotHer At lArge
Angelo Feola Neal, just out of the US Navy, with a
fellow Illinois student. Theta house in
ben C. FisHer sCHolAr background on right side of photo and
Ben Trepel campus down at the end of the street.
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