Rho Lambda Newsletter

Greetings, Brothers.

April 14th was OU’s Giving Day, and they received a record amount of donations! Sold Out Bedlam for ladies softball comes to Norman May 5-7 for the Big 12 title. Go Sooners! And there was a record crowd for the Spring Game on April 23rd, with over 250 former players in attendance. Biggest applause line: “This is how we get from good to great.” – Brent Venables.

The password we emailed you opens any file. Don’t have it? Contact us. If you get lost, use your back arrow, or return to oudekes.org. If anything’s askew, leave us a comment.

,TWO DEKES DUKE IT OUT

Deke vs Deke – The Republican Primary of 1876 – Terry Miller ‘69
In an interesting bit of DEKE History, two Dekes squared off against each other in a Republican Primary. Maine Senator James G. Blaine thought he had a lock on the nomination at the Sixth Republican National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio when the convention opened on the 14th of June, 1876. President Ulysses Grant had the previous December determined not to seek a third term which left the field wide open, and there were several would-be candidates eager to join the fray or reluctant candidates talked into running. Nine men were on the ballot, including two Brothers: James G. Blaine of Maine and Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio.

Blaine was a sitting Senator, and Hayes was Governor of Ohio. After they read the first ballot results, many thought Blaine led the field, being only 100 points from achieving a majority for the nomination at 285 votes. Hayes finished in the middle of the pack at 61 votes. Between them, in order, were: Oliver P. Morton, Senator from Indiana with 124 votes; Benjamin H. Bristow, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the first man to be named Solicitor General with 113 votes; and Roscoe Conkling, Senator from New York with 99 votes, and the last person to be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court only to decline to serve. (Read Episode 2 next month!)

From The ΔKE ΡΛ Literary Association

Brothers, the Randy Morrison Scholarship Fund, through the OU Foundation, has a goal of $25,000 by 2025. Since launching the fund on April 12th we have donations (cash received) of $1,400 with pledges by current donors in the amount of $6,000 over the next 20 months. We’ve received more verbal commitments to donate and hopefully that will happen this month. At $7,400, we’re 30% there already. I am working with the OU Foundation to generate reports monthly, and I’m confident in our ability to meet our goal before 2025. Please donate what you can, and you can do so directly to the OU FOUNDATION, via our FAQ page.

Memorial Day is May 30th, the day we set aside each year to remember those who gave their life in service to our country. Randy is the only member of the Rho Lambda Chapter to give his life during his service as a Navy Corpsman in Vietnam.

Kerothen, Bob Tierno, Chairman of the Board

ΡΛ Brother of the Month – STAN GERMOND

You’re invited to the Deke house for dinner, thinking maybe to pledge. Members are friendly, dinner is enjoyable, and afterward, they give you a tour. On the second floor, you meet a member not wearing a tie.

Stan Germond shook my hand and said something I won’t print. I resolved to be insulted as soon as I could stop laughing apoplectically. In that moment, I knew the Deke house was for me.

Fresh from OU as an Ensign in ’67, Stan was a commo officer on a destroyer escort cruising the western Pacific. He listened to Asia’s airwaves and had the secrecy codes required to brief the National Security Agency staff who’d often come aboard. N. Korea’s seizure of the USS Pueblo, the war in Vietnam, and China’s Cultural Revolution were all percolating topics.

His favorite Navy thing? “Coming home from deployment.” So you’ll know, he wears his cap to the Army/Navy Game, too. And, yes, he has choice words to say if I, or any non-naval person, deigns to comment on his choice of teams.

In ’71, Stan hung up his whites, got an MBA from the University of Illinois, and met an Irish lady, Marilyn, of whom he’s very respectful. They wed and set their sights on the Big Apple and a family.

Stan played the long game. After Chase Manhattan hired him, he took a train into Manhattan’s Chase Plaza for 35 years. Soon, there were two sons at home, Matt and Dave, whom I’ll bet he lovingly called “knuckleheads.” Stan and Marilyn were involved at school, of course; she, on school boards, he, helping as a volunteer-coach of baseball teams.

And he travelled. In 1930 Chase was the world’s largest bank. They had the first US bank branches in Japan and Germany after WWII. Stan worked in Chase’s commercial banking sector. Part of their expanding trade with Japan, London, and South America was using bills of exchange, letters of credit; all the financial tools that make international commerce possible.

Stan’s been to Narita, Japan, “maybe 25 times. And to London, South America, and elsewhere,” taking Marilyn and the kids along when possible.

But that was then. Now he’s hung up his spurs, getting to spend as much time as he wants with his beloved family.

Left to right, that’s Marilyn, Stan, Sheila, Matt, Alyson and Dave.

On the right, the grandkids: left to right, Matt and Sheila’s twins, Maggie and Cathleen, and Dave and Alyson’s kids, Molly and Luke. They’re a terrific collection of cousins, aren’t they?

I get a kick out of the fine families I meet through our brotherhood. I know Stan and Marilyn are rightly proud of their progeny. I think they’ve done well with their lives, and their kids, and the youngsters. Here’s one last shot of Luke with a hot puck.

Care for a fraternity brother side note? In 1804, Alexander Hamilton’s bank was NYC’s only commercial bank until Aaron Burr opened his Manhattan Bank. Alex took offense, they passed words, crossed the Hudson River to duel in New Jersey, and Burr’s bullet struck home. Chase Manhattan was part of a merger in 2000. The two pistols are now exhibited in the collection of JPMorgan Chase and Co.

Yesterday, Stan and I got around to talking about recent dimpled ball exploits, and I have to envy his buddies. Talking great smack on a golf course is an art form. I would intentionally 3-putt the 18th hole, just to hear what Stan might have to say. And to see if I could somehow match it without laughing to death.

Ron Sorter