As appeared in The Rattle - Vol. 54 No. 3 - Spring 1966

Theta Chi’s Executive Director to retire in 1967

Theta Chi Faces A Change
George Chapman has signified his desire to retire from the position as our Executive Director some time within the ensuing two years. True to his principles, he has indicated his eagerness to cooperate with Grand Chapter in acquainting his successor with the vast range of responsibilities, operations, procedures and manner-of-doing-things in his major position of leadership.

National President Howard Alter named a Committee of Grand Chapter to initiate a search for Mr. Chapman’s successor. Vice President Mark McColm is Chairman of the committee, and Joseph D. Ross, Jr., National Secretary, Spencer Shank, National Counselor, and Joseph C. Ross, Jr., National Marshal, are the other committee members.

The Chapman Years
This space is inadequate to note down what should be expressed in description and appreciation of

George Chapman’s extended service in our National Office. Entering the work when post-war enrollments and pressures were moving towards high tide, George kept Theta Chi abreast of the times. In a sensible and realistic manner, George endeavored to implement Starr Lasher’s thesis: If Fraternity is good, it is good’ for a maximum number of eligible men.

But growth is but one characteristic of these Chapman years. What year, what period from 1946-1947 forward was quiet, untroubled? Let's look at the record by naming just a few problems that had to be met;

Completing the functional integration of Beta Kappa into Theta Chi;

Adapting fraternity operation and system to the returning Veteran (and older man) and the traditional, new freshman (18 years);

Meeting the onslaught: of campus-based, left-wing sociological planners, who soon showed active opposition to the fraternity system, all too frequently by unethical and unprofessional means;

Counseling and encouraging undergraduates whose fraternity membership was sometimes under adverse pressure from unsympathetic college personnel officers;

Wrestling with the ever-present demand for extended, new housing. Corollary: Meeting the competition from provided housing that was sometimes lush in comparison;

Continuously working with Alumni, sometimes with frustration and futility and against long odds. Many new chapters were very, very young. Their Alumni may have been but a year or two older than their Seniors!!!

We name it; you know it: Membership qualifications. Long discussed and much studied, this subject moved rapidly to the fore during George's years of service. That Theta Chi has continued to function as a major National Social Fraternity during this troublesome period says much on the subject of stability, good sense and great care on the part of our National Leaders.

Finance. This problem is ever present, because more and better service is a continuous fraternity goal. And service somehow is tenaciously related to costs and available funds.

Personnel. In these years of tremendous scientific, technological, industrial and professional expansion, it has not been easy to recruit and retain personnel to work on fraternity staffs. Somehow, it has been done, at what effort we Alumni out in the Regions scarcely know.

Let us add: These years have ably demonstrated major achievements and high rewards. We name but three:

Growth. This is best expressed in terms of actual membership on campus, membership in Alumni ranks and in roster of chapters. True, other National fraternities have undergone similar growth. But Theta Chi kept pace and continues to find its place among the top ten. This kind of thing is done by the work of many men, yes. But leadership is imperative, too.

Emerging nationally. We have never heard George say as much, but suspect that he is quietly and gratefully proud of the way in which Theta Chi has moved to the forefront in National Fraternity Affairs. We do not here refer to numbers; we refer to positions occupied and leadership exercised in National Interfraternity Conference, College Fraternity Secretaries Association, and so on. It was the pointing, guiding hand of George W. Chapman that found and indicated the necessary who, how, and when in much of this significant development.

We become International. Another reason for pride we gladly name is the establishment of our first non-U.S. Chapter, up at University of Alberta, at Edmonton, Canada. J. C. Byrd did the “leg work” here and is entitled to the credit for this successful operation. One could expand this pleasant thought, but to mention it should be sufficient. All of us walk a little taller, are a little straighter since we have had our Zeta Gamma Chapter.

There will be many reviews Theta Chi over these past twenty years. The foregoing presents a few sectors of a very large Circle. Our counseling corps will yield no one in acknowledging the effort and achievement in Theta Chi, that radiated out from the Broad Street Bank Building, Trenton, during the Chapman years. Let our concluding statement here be on the note thai‘ a man’s ultimate worth lies in the manner and degree to which he favorably influences the lives of fellow man. May we suggest to George that he pause, if only a brief moment, and look about him. What he may see is the ever-enlarging Circle of Theta Chi. Within that Circle stands the legions of men whose lives he so effectively touched; within it, too, he may find the ultimate measure of his service.

Search for Successor Begins
It will be impossible to fill the shoes of George Chapman and no one knows this better than the Committee responsible for the task. Vice President Mark McColm is prepared to give further information to alumni who may wish to be considered for this position. Inquiries should directed to him at 4510 Brooklyn Avenue N.E., Seattle, Washington:

George Chapman To Retire as Executive Director - The Rattle, Spring 1966