Page 5 - Sigma Chi - Cornell Fall 2018

92-year-old fraternity chef honored:
“He nourished our souls”

Note: Last October, over 70 Alpha Phi
brothers convened in Greenville, South
Carolina, to honor long-time Greystone
chef and friend Harry A. Nash. The fol-
lowing is an article written by Ron Bar-
nett from the Greenville News on October
31, 2017, about the event.

The unlikeliest of ceremonies took
place over the weekend at a Baptist church
in Piedmont.
Some 75 alumni of the Sigma Chi fra-
ternity of Cornell University traveled from
across America to show their esteem for a
92-year-old man from Mauldin who had
been their cook decades ago by making him
an honorary member of the fraternity.
At the same time, they released a cook-
book of some of his best-loved recipes called
“Greystone Gourmet: The Culinary Magic
of Harry Anderson Nash, 1959-1986.” Harry and Ella Mae are toasted in Greenville, South Carolina, in October 2017.
Nash knew about the cookbook and
the reception at the church, and a dinner the cookbook, he was also “bail bondsman, tried farming with his dad in North Caro-
planned for him that evening at the Poin- fishing guide, card shark, odds maker and, lina for about three years.
sett Club, but the guys surprised him with most importantly, the adult who was there “I figured that wouldn’t work out,” he
making him an honorary member of the during our growing up years who readily said. “So then I decided to go back into
fraternity. lent an ear, wisely gave advice and counsel, cooking, and the food industry.”
He was so overcome with emotion after and became one of the most important men He headed north to New York and
being cloaked in a blanket bearing the fra- in our lives.” worked for a catering company before tak-
ternity’s insignia that he turned away from But it’s pretty clear that his food was the ing a job under a master chef at the Nation-
the adoring crowd to compose himself be- substance that held it all together. al Cash Register Company in Ithaca, New
fore he could recite the oath. “When I write the recipes, my nose lit- York – where Cornell is located.
“I seek true friendship,” Nash said fi- erally recreates the smell of them,” said Lee He worked in the dining hall at Cornell
nally, when prompted. Stiles of Seattle, who found 18 handwritten for a few months before hearing about three
“You find it here,” the brothers respond- recipes that Nash had given him years ago fraternities on campus that needed cooks.
ed heartily, in unison. in a closet and decided a cookbook should He interviewed with all three – and all three
It was clear that the bond between these be published. offered him the job.
graduates of an Ivy League school in Up- I can relate. I like his creation called “I had a tough time deciding which one
state New York and this African American “The Grey,” which is named after the fra- to take,” he said. “Eventually I took the job
World War II veteran from South Carolina ternity house these guys once lived in, the at Sigma Chi.”
ran deeper than that of a hired cook to his Greystone. It’s a concoction of ground beef, It turned out to be a good decision.
student employers. noodles, cream of mushroom soup, gravy “I had a wonderful relationship with all
“He was kind of our grounding father and other goodies. the brothers coming in and going out, and
figure,” Scott Lawrence, a 1971 graduate “Let me just say that Harry’s banana it worked out well for me,” he said.
who went on to become a family practice cream pie is still the best bakery good I’ve His cooking goes far beyond the South-
doctor, told me. “In retrospect we realize ever had,” said Stiles, who was in the whole- ern cuisine he grew up with. He learned
that.” sale bakery business for most of his career. from a professional chef book Cornell put
There were Cornelians from the West I had a nice talk with Nash before the out and added his own touches.
Coast, from New England – one even flew event about his life and career. Whatever he did, it obviously made a
in from Amsterdam for the event. Law- He grew up on a farm in York County big impact on the fraternity boys to remem-
rence, of Rutherfordton, North Carolina, and joined the Navy in February 1942, not ber him after all these years and travel hun-
was one of the few Southerners at there at long after Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry dreds or thousands of miles to come honor
Flat Rock Baptist Church, where Nash is a into World War II. him.
deacon. He ended up in the Aleutian Islands, Mort Bishop, who served as emcee for
“Harry is an amazing person,” said where he became a Commissary Steward, the event Saturday, summed it up very well,
Mort Bishop of Portland, Oregon. “He’s a 2nd class, in a unit supporting a reconnais- I think.
man of extraordinary character, faith and sance air group working in the Pacific. “Harry was one who not only nourished
generosity.” “I was in charge of making sure that the our body,” he said. “He nourished our soul.”
He was more than a cook extraordi- enlisted mess and officers’ mess had all the Congratulations, Mr. Nash, and to your
naire to the fraternity members he served supplies,” he said. wife of 70 years Ella Mae, and all your family.
for 27 years. According to the foreword to After leaving the service in 1946, he 5

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