Alter President's Message - The Rattle, Winter 1965
As appeared in The Rattle - Vol. 53 No. 2 - Winter 1965
Letter from the National President
There have been many milestones in Theta Chi history since Fredrick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase set the first one nearly one hundred and nine years ago. Not the least of these was reached on February 20 at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. On this date we became an international fraternity.
It was a privilege for me to serve on Zeta Gamma Chapter's installation committee with alumni brothers from Lambda, Rho, Omega, Alpha Eta, Alpha Omicron, Alpha Rho, and Alpha Tau, and with undergraduate brothers from Alpha Omicron, Delta Xi, Beta Epsilon, and Epsilon, and Epsilon Kappa; and with them to welcome this chapter presided over by an initiate of Beta Chapter. Here representatives of our chapters from Boston to Seattle joined hands to bring Theta Chi to our first Canadian campus. Here a charter member of Rho Chapter, who received the 1964 Canadian National Award for Exceptional Service, joined with undergraduate brothers whose future is yet ahead of them, to promote the Brotherhood of Theta Chi. It was an experience which all of us who were there will treasure.
In this day when those who would destroy the "American Way" tell us that fraternities have outlived their usefulness and purpose, it is heartening to know that the opportunity for service, both within the United States and the Provinces of Canada, is greater than any of us is prepared to meet.
The challenge of Fraternity in 1965 is as great, as we look toward April 10, as it was for our founders in 1856. If we again dedicate ourselves to believe in Theta Chi, in its traditions and its ideals, we can go only forward to greater heights and greater milestones in the continuing experience of brotherhood which began at Norwich one hundred and nine years ago.
Fraternally yours
Howard R. Alter, Jr.
National President