ALPHA TAU OMEGA (ATΩ) FRATERNITY MEMORIES
(1966 – 2009)

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: It was during my first year as a freshman that I had pledged Chi Phi Fraternity (ΧΦ) I most fortunately never finished the pledgeship of this fraternity mostly due to something of what I had considered to be rather senseless planks called hazing.  The actives had kidnapped several of the pledges and driven them to some off-campus locations, hopefully to be found by some of their pledge brothers.  This would have been better if the locations had been heated during these rather cold nights during late fall.  I guess that I was just a bit too serious.  It was the pledge brothers’ fault if any of their kidnapped pledge brothers had been accidentally “over-exposed” to the elements.

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI; My Sophomore year; I tried another fraternity, Phi Delta Theater (ΦΔΘ).  I believe that the reason for my not completing this pledgeship was simply the time that the fraternity was simply taking too much time away from my studies.  I wanted to be sure that my grades would show just how serious I was considering that I would have been on probation had I remained at the University of Florida.

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI; My Junior year was another fraternity pledging effort with Sigma Chi (ΣΧ).  I had no good reason that I can remember to have not finished my pledgeship with Sigma Chi.  It was certainly a good fraternity with a good reputation.  I and another pledge brother, Neil Henderson had both de-pledged at the same time.  I remember that Neil Henderson was the son of the first Governor of the Bahamas following the gained independence from England, Sir Guy Henderson.

          It was in the summer of 1993 while I was in Atlanta and helping my father once again in the building business that I had given myself another assignment.  I asked around to anyone that had attended any university that had Greek system, to freely give their opinion as to what they thought was the best national fraternity.  Their answers were almost unanimous to either one of two fraternities would be the best; Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) or Alpha Tau Omega (ATΩ).  They were both at the University of Miami.  Since ΣΑΕ was very active on campus and ATΩ not only did not have a house, but was barely active with their critically small number of active brothers.  So there was no choice to be made; it would be definitely ΣΑΕ.

UNIVERISTY OF MIAMI:  My senior year, the first semester: That particular semester I had applied for a position as resident advisor in the university’s on campus housing, men’s dorms.  I had received that appointment, and for that reason, during the start of that fall semester I had to be physically present in the dorms during the same period of student orientation as was the time that fraternities’ rush was taking place.  I had informed the brothers of ΣΑΕ that I was interested in pledging their fraternity and they said that there would be no problem; and that all I had to do was wait until formal rush was over, and that I would be pledged during what was called open rushing that followed immediately after the formal period of rush.  Since the only event I had attended during formal rush was the final dinner that was offered to all of their rushees, I had assumed that I would have been a pledge as soon as formal rush was over and immediately at the beginning of open rush; not so!  There arose a problem; ΣΑΕ, because they had violated some of the formal rush rules, they where prohibited from signing any additional pledges for the rest of that same semester.

          So, so as the consummate consolation prize, that semester I had called another friend of mine, Joy Aydlett of the Delta Zeta (ΔΖ) Sorority because I was aware that one of her sorority sisters was actually dating an ATΩ.  I remember calling her sorority sister and she told me that I needed to call one of their brothers by the name of, Joaquin Guma who was apparently the President of ATΩ during that semester.  Despite the strangeness of his name I called Joaquin and he referred me to their ATΩ rush chairman, Doc Ridenhour.  When I called Doc, he simply told me to meet him in the Dean's office the next day and that he would sign me up.  That marriage was made in heaven simply because that particular fraternity had a Creed that turned out to be a guiding light of what I now call the Age of Reality.

          This ATΩ college fraternity is definitely part and parcel to this entire story.  Very interestingly, the fraternity’s principal founder, Otis Allan Glazebrook, who later became an Episcopal minister, had suggested the “ATΩ” name based on a biblical phrase, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” And the “T” in ATΩ is one of the original symbols of the cross.  So, you might say that ATΩ is just about as Christian in its actual and realistic origins as one can get when it comes to college social fraternities.  My particular involvement was rather significant since I was sort of a rebel within this supposedly Christian fraternity that I found wasn’t always practicing the loving teachings of Jesus.  I was the first brother, to my knowledge, to have openly and welcomely initiated a Jew (while I was still an undergraduate brother at the University of Miami, (often and lovingly called the Jewniversity of Miami).  And sometime later, I was no doubt the pivotal orator in a rather heated debate at the very ATΩ congress where our odorous “black” clause was finally eliminated from the fraternity’s rather antiquated constitution.

ATΩ GLAZEBROOK CREED: To bind men together a brotherhood based upon eternal and immutable principles, with a bond as strong as right itself and as lasting as humanity; to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but to know man as man, to teach that true men the world over should stand together and contend for the supremacy of good over evil; to teach, not politics, but morals; to foster, not partisanship, but the recognition of true merit wherever found; to have no narrower limits within which to work together for the elevation of man than the outlines of the world: these were the thoughts and hopes uppermost in the minds of the founders of the Alpha Tao Omega fraternity.

Otis A. Glazebrook

         1880 I had called

I don't believe that I should have had anything else to add to this inspiring Creed.  There was only one other pledge brother in the pledge class of that semester at the University of Miami.  By the time I had finished my pledgeship successfully I was already asking to be made rush chairman for the following semester in which I had personally rushed a goodly number of acceptable young men as prospects resulting in a new pledge class of some 18 members, which as it turned out, was a larger number of members than the total membership of actives.  From the time that I pledged and most definitely helped them improve their total membership in both numbers as well as quality characters, I can honestly say that I was the very reason for a total resurgence and even to the point of their eventually buying an abandoned fraternity house on campus.  This calculated success can be attributed to the good reputation of one, “Ivory Joe,” a nickname given to me by a good friend from my high school years, Joseph Fox.  It was much later, the early 90s, that I had made a trip to England and France with John Howell.  We were returning from Paris on a Pan American flight to New York when the pilot made his usual announcements upon reaching the flight’s elevation and introduced his flight crew including Joseph Fox as his co-pilot.  I immediately asked one of the cabin crew members to inform this co-pilot that “Ivory Joe” was aboard as a passenger.  Almost as soon as the flight steward disappeared, there cam from the front of the passenger cabin a very excited, Joe Fox.  What a wonderful and serendipitous reunion of two old high school buddies that neither one of us hadn’t seen or heard from in some 30 years after graduation.

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Another senior year for which I had decided to remain at Georgia State University following my taking some summer classes at the undergraduate level.  I had previously established a rather favorable reputation within the fraternity because I was to have the dubious distinction of having founded that first chapter of ATΩ to have been established in the state of Georgia in the 20^th Century; all four of the previously existing Georgia chapters had been established during the late mid to the late 1800’s and they were all at the more notable Georgia universities like the University of Georgia, Emory and Georgia Tech.  There had been some local resistance at establishing a chapter at the less-notable Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta, because it just wasn’t considered as equally prestigious or even as old as the other four notable Georgia universities where ATΩ then existed.  But of course I was noted as always playing the consummate devil’s advocate for just about any good or reasonable cause in the spirit of what my father had always intended, “doing the right thing.”

In the fall of 1967, I left Atlanta, Georgia and headed west. I had decided to pay a personal visit to every chapter in the west of my college fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega (ATΩ).  Most of the active chapters that I visited are just what one ought to expect of ATΩ and that includes the states of Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, and even South Dakota later on.  There were a couple of noted exceptions the first of which was Occidental, where their ATΩ Charter had been withdrawn by the national fraternity.  It was a sad exception because the withdrawal was due to the reality that they had initiated some brothers of color without the ATΩ National’s approval or blessings.  These exceptional brothers of color were initiated simply because they had become such good friends of the ATΩ brotherhood; sharing an excellent and mutual membership on the school's football team.

The other exception was at Stanford University where the fraternity house still existed despite the reality that the ATΩ National fraternity had once again withdrawn their charter due to the fraternity having initiated some Oriental students.  You should easily imagine the quality of any Stamford student whether they be white, brown or yellow.  The ATΩ house was still intact and besides having an excellent location on campus, the interior has some of the most beautiful custom woodwork incorporating Alpha Tau Omega signs and symbols.  My stepfather who had graduated from Stanford summa cum laude back in 1932 remembers ATΩ being an outstanding fraternity.  There was another chapter in the state of Oregon that had lost their charter and I was unable to ascertain the reason, but I strongly suspected that may have been for the same membership discriminatory reasons?

It was towards the end of this adventurous journey throughout the west, and while in Denver, Colorado, that my ultimate fate was sort of set into real-time motion.  I had attended a regional conclave of ATΩ the weekend just before Thanksgiving, and it was at this regional conclave that the local Province Chief and several other ATΩ brothers approached me after the dinner.  They had asked if I would or might be interested in helping them establish a chapter of our beloved ATΩ fraternity at the University of New Mexico.  These Denver based brothers had indicated that there was already a transferred ATΩ brother, Dana Wright, attending UNM at that time, but that he was having some difficulty in getting anything off the ground.  They were all confident that with my previous experience, personal presence and success, I should have far less difficulty establishing a chapter of ATΩ at the University of New Mexico.  By this time, I had finally realized that perhaps I really did have a good reputation within the ranks of my ATΩ fraternity as was witnessed by these good brothers in Colorado who, in fact, had no other good reason or cause to have approached me for their own particular chapter-building wishes and that offer of an assignment.

UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO: I had agreed without much hesitation that I would at least seriously investigate the situation for myself and meet with this Dana Wright upon arrival in Albuquerque.  This special assignment was conveniently on my way to Deming where I was to be paying a visit to my parent’s new home in New Mexico.  It was an interesting, unexpected, but timely offer in that the only potential connection that I might have had anywhere in the western part of the United States was in fact in that perceived desert-like state of New Mexico.  I arrived in Albuquerque late in the day on the following Wednesday, and the very next day will always be remembered well, since it was the only time in my entire life that I have ever had to eat a Thanksgiving Dinner alone, sitting at a rather sterile Formica counter in a café of a motel on the famous Route 66 (East Central Avenue in Albuquerque). I met with this fraternity brother, Dana Wright, the very next day and we became instant friends, and I immediately committed myself to this unanticipated but by that tine in my life a most certainly familiar mission.  I then made my expected visit to Deming, and after several weeks at my parents’ new home and church, I returned to Albuquerque for the remainder of the fall semester and beginning of the spring academic semester.  I even attended some classes that spring while laying the initial groundwork for the new ATΩ chapter.

          It was with this ATΩ colony and chapter’s growth at such a rapid pace that led to this particular chapter so easily leading the other established fraternities by, for example the winning of the Presidents cup for inner-mural athletics as well as posting as one of the top academic fraternities.  I had always picked the very best brothers for what I felt that they could naturally contribute; I can remember some minor resistance to some of the brothers that I had chosen who probably didn't look like a successful fraternity man, but of course in time these very same brothers that were considered by some to not be acceptable material simply based upon their looks, more often than not contributed to the overall success of this University of New Mexico newest Chapter.  I fortunately had always contended that quality begets quality.  And with ATΩ national fraternity's excellent reputation, which reflects this great quality in both their various achievements and the good character of their members, I had always found it ever so easy to recruit the best of men that may have been available.

          I had had an understanding with the province chief and other alumni in Colorado that I would do this job for them with the understanding that I wanted absolute control for no less than five years.  The reason behind this is my contention that any chapter being established needs to be at the control of some individual who would of sort of walked this chapter through the expected cycle of any freshman through his four years until he would graduate so that the chapter could more easily establish the needed traditions of excellence that naturally changes for any individual experiencing the changes that actually occurs as one matures from his freshman year to graduation.  I had fallen short of this initial requirement of mine, most simply because some of the other good men that we had initially initiated had gotten the idea of their success was more important than some of the traditions that I'd hoped to establish.  As a result of this egotistical form of ethnocentricity of excellence, they confused their success with what there had been initially established tradition of success and as expected the fraternity soon declined and lost their charter.  I'm saddened to report that the ATΩ national fraternity is re-colonizing the chapter, and have further insulted me for not including me in this re-colonization of a chapter that I had once found and had had great success as long as I was in control.

Just a bit of trivia and historical fact:  the main campus library at the University of New Mexico, located in the eastern section of Albuquerque, is named “Zimmerman,” and it was so named for one of its earlier and more prominent presidents.  It was this Zimmerman who had previously prevented ATΩ from ever establishing a chapter at UNM, principally because this ‘southern gentleman’ who had graduated from the University of the South didn’t wish to display any partiality for his own college fraternity, which just happened to have been ATΩ.  Somewhere in the midst of my ATΩ fraternity involvement, the presence of my parents in Deming, and the innate allure of this Land of Enchantment, I fell in love with New Mexico and decided to make it my homestead of choice.  I guess I became as intrigued with its strange and mesmerizing allure as so many others that are drawn here.

          Besides the Denver invitation to start a fraternity chapter at the University of New Mexico, I will repeat there was another event that occurred after I had visited all of the chapters in the west.  It was at Occidental University in the Los Angeles area that I first encountered a situation where the ATΩ chapter had had its chapter’s charter revoked because they had initiated some brothers of color without the national fraternity’s astute blessings.  My next eye-opening experience was at Stanford University, the alma mater of Gilbert Holloway, my stepfather, where the national fraternity had likewise revoked the local fraternity’s charter because they had initiated an Oriental man that wasn’t of the Christian faith.  Both of these unexpected encounters with racial/religious bigotry within my own “loving” fraternity certainly didn’t sit very well with me, and it would only be a matter of time before I was able to justly rectify both of these awkward situations and assist in those long overdue and much-needed changes that would eventually bring my most beloved ATΩ fraternity into the 20^th Century.

I had directly participated in all of these needed changes in ATΩ with the very tactful employment of their own key words of “virtue, truth, and love.”  One should always practice what they preach; that’s what I was taught!  It was at a summer time National meeting that the whole of the Fraternity’s Constitution was being challenged and changed as to bring ATΩ in concert with society where discrimination against people-of-color was nationally challenged in the mid-60s, resulting in the giving of civil rights to people of color.  It was at this ATΩ national congress that I had resolutely raised my hand to participate in this heated debate and was soon recognized, most probably because being a Southerner there was probably the assumption that I would be in favor of maintaining the tradition of this discrimination.

When I had finally reached the microphone I had proceeded to deliver one of my best oratory deliverers ever, and when I had finished this sermon based upon their own ATΩ founder, Otis Alan Glazebrook, I am particularly proud to report that it was one of the brothers sitting with the opposition brothers that had raised his hand, and before anyone could even recognize his raised hand, the brother had said rather aggressively, affirmatively and loudly, “Now! ‘I call the question!’” Because my words were so in keeping with the deeply Christian sentiments of our founder as well as the reality that Jesus was, after all, a Jew; the motion then passed almost unanimously; that was quite a solid victory for those good brothers who would have had that way in the first place.  I am sad to report that one of the brothers serving the fraternity at its national level had approached me at the end of this rather positive session, at least for most of us, and reported that, “Considering what you've just done to the fraternity, you should not expect to be added to the High Council as was initially expected at this particular ATΩ Congress.”  I can remember responding with something like, “If that is the price that one has to pay for progress just by doing what is right, then I am very proud to have paid for every bit of it.”  Little did I know that I was already beginning to practice one of those most important tenets of this most wonderful Age of Reality?  And from their own Creed, “to know man as man, to teach that true men the world over should stand together and contend for the supremacy of good over evil; to teach, not politics, but morals; to foster, not partisanship, but the recognition of true merit wherever found;”  Of course, we Americans at large also fail to live up to those wonderful tenets that were intended by our own Founding Fathers; especially that of Thomas Jefferson.  As a gay man, I truly wonder just whatever happened to that concept of equality.  I am equally convinced that there will be too little change in our society at large even with all the recognized signs of our finally entering this wonderful Age of Reality.  I for one really know, not to expect any of the changes in our society that even Jesus of Nazareth had proposed some 2000 years previously.

NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY: It was some time during the later 70s that I had also founded another ATΩ colony at New Mexico State University (NMSU).  Most of my good efforts at NMSU were accomplished while I was also working on that first effort at earning a masters degree.  By the time of this newest effort at establishing an ATΩ chapter I had learned some of the more useful techniques and some of the difficulties to avoid.  It was during the early 90s that the chapter adviser was Gilbert Newton Holloway III who had become an ATΩ at San Jose State University before I was to eventually join ATΩ myself, and yes, he was my stepbrother.  What an unexpected coincidence, in that my stepbrother had become an alumni advisor of a chapter that I had founded.  This all occurred shortly after both my mother and stepfather, Gilbert Holloway has already died.  I was told that Gilbert Holloway the third had moved to New Mexico in the hopes of cashing in on the inheritance of either my mother's death or that of  his father's.  Gilbert Holloway had once told me that I was respected as his son more so than either of his own two sons.  It any case, this natural son of Gilbert's had simply lost any chance of inheriting anything from his father because of his own neglect as the son who had cut his father off from any contact because of the bitterness that probably came from the ugly divorce of his father from his own mother.

EASTERN NEW MEXICO UNIVERSITY:  Despite the reality that the high council of ATΩ had refused the granting of colony status to this group of outstanding students, the reality remains that it was a time of political payback for my integral part in changing the fraternity as it applied to their previous display of bigotry against potential brothers-of-color.  That political move on behalf of the fraternity had marked my own total rejection of my once beloved fraternity.

          This ill-treatment of me by the fraternity appears to be very much alive, even today as was so demonstrated by a group of brothers that are engaging in the process of reestablishing the defunct Zeta Epsilon chapter of Alpha Tau Omega at the University of New Mexico.  As it has turned out, their ill-treatment of me actually leaves me free from any use of me that would interfere with the time that is now needed for my dedication to the eventual introduction of this wonderful Age of Reality.  This later phase of my life has too little room for any other passions that are not closely related to this Age of Reality.  I have, however, made an offer to the local ATΩ re-colonization group of young men.  My offer is simply that of offering this rther large home, San Damiano that was specifically designed for the entertainment of larger groups that just likely cannot be so easily accommodated or hosted in a more traditional sized home.  The grand room of this home is somewhere at 1000 ft.² with a large fireplace at its center.  Should the group need to be seated at any given time, I have some twenty five stacked chairs with cushioned seats.  My sincere hope is that they will take me up on my offer.  I must also add that the working of my ATΩ National Fraternity appears to have grown in a much needed positive direction, especially with many of its local chapters now paying more attention to helping and even possibly loving their neighbors through their own form of agapé (charity by and through love).  The most positive direction has certainly impressed me and is essentially the reason for my slightly revitalized interest.