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.