Jerry Ford comes to visit

The Shant in Ann Arbor

Some time in either the Spring or early Fall of '73 I attended my first board meeting of The Omicron Literary Association the then 100 year old alumni corporation of DKE in Ann Arbor. The OLA was incorporated to construct the first fraternity building on the Campus of the University of Michigan, known as the Shant. A remnant of a bygone era, it occupied a prime campus retail location bordering the Ann Arbor Campus.

As I recall, the meeting was at the University Club on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit. The University was one of those fine old men's clubs. Its corpse now lies rotting with much of the rest of the open sewer known as Detroit, windowless and vacant.

Anyway, the meeting was more of a wake. The Treasurer resigned, and as the youngest man in the room, I foolishly accepted the chore. Then I realized that we had $92 in cash and were over 5 grand in debt. Club Omicron, the concept put together by Bill Hurley's '42 older son had just crashed and burned and his farewell/apology letter was read to the board.

We were about ready to become a "last bottle" club with a reasonably marketable building in Ann Arbor and virtually no chance of bringing back a fraternity. The ranks of U of M fraternities was down to about 50% of when I had joined in 1965. The White Panther Party and the MC5 were in one old house, a number had become co-ops or communes. Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll came to campus. The Hash Bash was an annual event and the Ann Arbor Police had a $5 fine for a marijuana bust.

Just then Nate Bryant '45 from Holland, Michigan burst into room and announced that his son's friend, Dickie Beedon from Holland and 12 or so of his friends wanted to restart the chapter. We put together a business plan with the kids basically ending up with their own private club on campus. The Shant provided elegant surroundings for a non residential party, meeting and study structure. Alumni enthusiasm grew and I was able to retire the debt I inherited and start building some assets from dues and donations from the alumni and undergraduates.

We got in touch whoever was trying to run the National, and he hooked us up with the Miami University Chapter in Miami Ohio who provided a few undergraduates, and we had the first initiation in Ann Arbor since 1968. It was now early 1974 and Nate, who was an old friend of Betty Bloomer Ford, heard that Jerry Ford '35 was coming to campus for a visit. Working through his advance office and Ed Frey '31, Jerry's big brother in the house and his major support for his entire political career, we were able to get the Vice President to come spend an hour with the undergrads and the alumni at the Shant. 

It was a grand occasion which we celebrated with Milk Punch, a particularly lethal concoction that was the historic Deke drink. We made the national press and the word was out: DKE in Ann Arbor is back! This was the first time I  met Brother Ford, an association that I returned to and valued the remainder of his life.

For a tribute to "Brother Ford" see Eric Freeman's excellent piece. 

The worst few days of my life

It's now August of '71, I have been home from US Army Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training for about three weeks. I am in the AG Section of HHC 38th Division Indiana Army National Guard along with Dan Quayle Psi Phi '69. My wife, Carolyn, and I are driving to Indianapolis to spend the weekend with my parents while I attend the Guard meeting. It's about 10 PM and we are hit head on by a pickup truck who is going the wrong way down I 69 near Fishers Indiana. He first sideswiped a Semi and then hit us full head on. The car is spun to the right and a Sting Ray plows into Lynn's side of the car.

The rest is a nightmare. I am out for awhile and come to. I think I hear Lynn say "I love you" and that was it. We are taken to Fishers EMT and they determine Lynn is in such bad shape we need to run to Methodist Hospital in Indy. Dad was the president of Indiana Bell, and he and mom were out for the evening. I called the emergency number and talked to his EVP Paul Rankin who literally met us at the hospital. Lynn's intestine had been cut in half, jaw broken, several teeth knocked out, and she was in a coma. I had a broken leg, an black and blue impression like a large Peace Symbol from the steering wheel on my chest and a cut up face. We were both in the hospital for 11 days. She in the ITC and me in a room. Increasingly grave reports were coming about Lynn and the Doctors finally determined she was brain dead, and my father authorized turning off life support.

The next few days sort of whirl. We (Mom, Dad, and I) drive back to Ann Arbor. There is a funeral service at the Newman Student Chapel and a burial at the Cemetary on Geddes and North U in Ann Arbor. It was raining, the grave was on a hill, and my wheel chair let loose nearly launching me downhill into the grave on top of the coffin! This was followed by a reception at the Campus Inn with huge overly liberal libation of Bloody Marys. 

I think the funeral is Saturday. I came back to Ann Arbor on Friday, and Mom and Dad leave to go back to Indy on Sunday. I am left with memories, her clothes and things, in our apartment, and I go back to work in Southfield the next day, basically still in shock.

Club Omicron

It's now coming back to me in a flood. The year was 1972, Bill Dibble and I and our wives went to a reception at the Shant hosted by the Omicron Literary Association.  We were introduced to all the Grosse Pointe Farms alumni and a group of young men headed by Bill Hurley's son who were to form Club Omicron and meet in the Shant. 

The new Executive Director of DKE National, appointed by Charlie Blaisdell, Tony Skorupski, was there. He congratulated us. Stood on the pool table and led "Band of Brothers". Then gave a speech in which he told us that Dan Dayton, '35, friend to all of us had dropped dead at the Yale Club playing Squash. Tony had guaranteed him for a room through the Deke Club and got stuck for $170 paying for it. Tony's lesson "Leave money to DKE!."

The minutes for the evening reflect that Brother Bill Larned '65 moved to condemn Brother Skorupski and he was physically removed from the meeting.

Our "Mansion on the Hill" Burns

Backing up a bit, the grand old house at 1912 Geddes had burned down in the summer of 1967. The alumni still owned a historic building, built in 1879 by William LeBaron Jenney, the first lecturer in Architecture at the University of Michigan who went on to be known as the Father of the Skyscraper for his use of structural steel in the Chicago Home Insurance Building. The Shant is a "mystic" little structure of 2000 sq ft with three stained glass windows. In 1968 it was still gas lit.

This unfortunate fire occurring during the summer of 1967, could have marked the end of Omicron.  Prior to the fire, the heating system had become inoperable and The Omicron Literary Association under the leadership of Paul Elvidge ‘57, Charlie Liken ‘56 and George Zinn ‘55 had negotiated a sale to move to an innovative apartment/club house project on Wilmot and Washtenaw.  The fire destroyed these plans, the building was underinsured, litigation resulted and as a result Omicron was left the Shant as its only asset.  After a semester attempt at rush from the then gas lit Shant, the chapter closed operations in 1968.  When the house burned, the insurance company, took the position that it was abandoned as it was vacant for the summer. They were successful in a lawsuit defended by George Zinn for the house, and we then were sued by the developer as we were totally unable to afford the deal that we had agreed upon. That suit settled and we found ourselves with a nearly 100 year old building that was in fall down condition, not having had any renovations since 1879.

At this point Wilfred Casgrain '16, a Detroit Financier from Grosse Pointe Farms stepped forward and led a campaign that raised over a hundred thousand and literally rebuilt the building from the inside out, adding necessities such as electricity, water and heat! All of this was done with no support from the "National" which consisted of a fine old Gentleman, James M. Henderson, who had been in DKE's Employ since 1939 and was based in the Yale Club of New York. The Fraternity was in a death spiral. From some 55 Chapters at its peak, it was down to 30 or so functioning chapters who survived only on the strength of their local alumni. We learned this to our dismay, and knew the only direction for us was on our own.

Foolishly, I start to get involved professionally with Delta Kappa Epsilon

There are a few decades to fill in, and I promise I will get to  them. It is now 1982, I am employed with Butzel Long Gust Klein & Van Zile in Detroit. I have agreed to put together a new tax deductible foundation for my National Fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, which could invest in low interest rate housing on fraternity houses. I successfully do this and get Gerald Ford and Bill Simon to serve as honorary Presidents. I start becoming a money raiser.

Career-wise, in December 1983, I get my MBA from the University of Michigan, and have commenced putting together a number of real estate syndications in Ann Arbor, starting with the first Fraternity Limited Partnership/Tax Shelter in the country. I recruited Ed Frey, who was Jerry Ford's big brother in the DKE house and the fire plug behind his candidacy for Congress from Grand Rapids, for $60,000 and a number of others for between $5,000 and $20,000. I was also able to convince Michigan National bank to lend us $300,000 and we were able to close.

We bought the old Evans Scholars House in Ann Arbor. The thing about Evans Scholars is that they award scholarships to caddies who are expected to have meal jobs. So there was no kitchen in the house and we had not budgeted for them. At the time I was working with Ellis D. Slater, who was Class of '17 and Dwight Eisenhower's old golf partner, and wanted to endow the Michigan DKE house in some matter. I went down to visit him in Palm Beach and discuss the Foundation that I had put together.

I came back with Slats' check for $25 grand which the foundation was able to lend it to the partnership and we had a kitchen!