A Message from the President
Brothers, As we approach the new year, we can look back in satisfaction at our many accomplishments in 2023, including: 13 composites professionally repaired and rehung. 11 issues of the Paragon (including this one!) 10 new members initiated into our brotherhood 5 Golden Rings! (sorry) 3 very successful work weekends. Read more about our November work weekend later in this issue. 2 alumni-sponsored rush events at Quaker Steak & Lube, with another one coming on January 26. 1 well attended Homecoming event For the third time this year, members of the classes of 1957, 1960, 1961 and 1962 (aka, the “Geezer” group) made a generous group donation to the Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association. Brothers, we appreciate your faith in our organization and your continued support. Thank you.
Mike Calabrese Nick Camino Joe Ceccarini Dave Weigel Con DeLetis Dave Ehlke John Fernbacher Bill Grad	Maynard Isabell Rick Knazek Joe Svete Bob Modic Tom Mogan Al Muren Tom Prioreschi
Whether you follow the traditional Catholic faith of Phi Kappa Theta or another religious tradition, we wish you all a warm holiday season filled with family and friends. And if you’re considering New Year’s resolutions, why not resolve to volunteer for the Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association in 2024? We’re still looking for volunteers to assist us with our computer needs. Drop an email to Nathan Kossover at secretary@ohioalphabeta.org to learn more. Yours in the Bonds, Nicholas DeCenzo
Welcome New Brothers!
On November 17, we initiated three new members into the Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta. Our newest brothers are Andrew Ziets, Matthew Sunderland and Samuel Qin. Welcome brothers!
L-R: Matthew, Samuel, Andrew
Save the Date: Quaker Steak & Lube on January 26
For the third rush period in a row, the Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association will be sponsoring a rush event with the active chapter. Please plan to join us on Friday, January 26 at Quaker Steak & Lube in Sheffield, Ohio. Further details will follow in January.
Composites Wanted – Do You Have a Copy?
Earlier this year, your generous donations allowed us to professionally repair and rehang thirteen composites. Thank you again for all your support! We also repaired and rehung two more composites ourselves. Our next step is to attempt to replace the five composites that are either missing or are damaged beyond repair. This project is off to a great start as David Cesaratto ‘68 and Mike Urbancic ‘70 were able to provide us with their personal copies of the 1965 and 1969 composites, respectively. We are now investigating whether it is possible to blow up those copies to the usual wall size so we can rehang them. We would very much like to find copies of the following three composites. If you have a personal copy of any of the following composites that we could use, please contact Nathan Kossover at secretary@ohioalphabeta.org 1952 – Our copy is badly damaged with many pictures missing. 1953 – Our copy is missing. 1973 – Our copy is missing. The oldest composite we know about is that damaged 1952 composite, but if you happen to have a composite from before 1952, we’d love to have it. And for that matter, our 1954 and 1956 composites also appear to be copies of copies, so if you have the real deal we’d be pleased to accept them too.
November Work Weekend is a Success!
Alumni and active volunteers gathered on November 4 and 5 for our third work weekend of 2023. Our volunteers traveled from all over Cleveland and six different states in three different time zones.
Tom Andersen Eugene Choi Steve DeBrosse Joe DiFranco Jason Dolan John Dutton Joe Gall Pat Glynn	Gary Jarkewicz Eli Jones Nathan Kossover Wayne Miller Ken Nagano Tony Rossi Davey Rowan Brian Yu
In the spirit of “Give, Expecting Nothing Thereof”, a few more alumni turned up without RSVPing. Our apologies to anyone we missed from the list above. Thank you to all the alumni and active who helped out over the weekend. On Friday night there was a gathering at the BottleHouse Brewing and Meadery in Cleveland Heights so that our volunteers could “mentally fortify” themselves for the work ahead. Thankfully, the always suspect November weather mostly cooperated. Our volunteers completed a lot of maintenance on the house. Here are some of the highlights.

We’ve gotten tired of paying exterminators to remove animals from under the deck, so we installed wooden deck skirting all the way around the deck to at least increase the decree of difficulty for the next groundhog who comes along. Above, Ken Nagano and Gary Jarkewicz evaluate how much dirt will need to be dug out. Speaking of animal prevention, in July we filled an animal hole under the front porch with gravel and cemented it closed. An undeterred critter (apparently a Civil Engineering major) decided to dig a completely new hole under the porch, so we broke out the gravel and cement and blocked the new hole.

One of the rarest sights at the Phi Kappa Theta house – inside the server room at the back of the house on the first floor. For many years there had been a broken window air conditioner and some very ugly plywood in the window that Tony Rossi is standing by. It now has some much more aesthetically pleasing window tinting and blinds so it doesn’t look like an abandoned house when viewed from the driveway.

Damaged dry wall was repaired in multiple bedrooms throughout the house. Here Wayne Miller and an unidentified brother work on the ceiling of the Greenhouse.

We also replaced a part of the wall of the Studio. Note: where you see Tony Rossi is not actually a window.

We did a lot of work on and inside the garage. We started by replacing the original drain grate, which was broken. We installed new lights inside the garage and put three security camera / light combos on the garage overlooking the driveway and the back fence. Here Jason Dolan installs the light/camera rig overlooking the former location of the back gate. We say “former location” because we had previously made some temporary repairs to the back fence to keep out trespassers. On Saturday, we installed a permanent fence over the old gate location and generally made it so that would-be trespassers will have to work a lot harder to enter via that route.

The two columns that hold up the front porch awning were repaired and repainted. Here John Dutton fills holes in the column with putty.
Other small projects included: A portion of the gutter over the porch was replaced. All of the carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers were tested, and we replaced the filter in our heavy duty dehumidifier. We cleaned out all the window wells and tested their drains. All but one passed; that one will be hydrojetted. We had previously made a temporary fix to the kitchen mop sink. In November it was fully replaced. We threw out a lot of debris and raked a lot of leaves.

And lastly, we made the house much brighter. Eugene Choi and John Dutton admire the new LED bulbs in the badge.
Contractors Are Working on the House Too
While we’d love to be able to do all the work on our house ourselves, there are some projects that are too time consuming, too urgent or require too much specialist knowledge and equipment for us to complete. In November, we paid contractors to complete two updates to the house. An electrician was brought in to make some updates to the kitchen fire suppression system so that we can pass an inspection by the City of Cleveland. One of the original clay sanitary sewer lines from the house to the street partially collapsed, with predicable results. Those of you who were around in the late 1990s may recall when we rented heavy equipment to dig up our lawn and replace one such sewer line ourselves. This was not that sewer line; it turns out that 11016 Magnolia has at least two sewer lines from the house to the street.This time around we hired a contractor who specializes in relining sewer lines without digging up the property. The project was successfully completed in November. The substantial and unexpected costs of this project were covered by the active chapter’s budget.

The contractors replaced the sewer line via this hole. This is in the floor of the basement room that is to the right as you face the bar at the bottom of the stairs

Chapter Eternal: Tom Prioreschi
The Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association has been informed of the passing of alumnus Thomas Prioreschi on November 18, 2023. Tom was 84 years old and made his home in Columbia, South Carolina. He is survived by his wife Madeline as well as many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His full obituary can be found here. Tom was initiated into Phi Kappa in 1957 and was a member of the late 1950s “Geezer” group that has actively supported the Alumni Association over the last 18 months. The Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association extends its condolences to the family, friends and fraternity brothers of Brother Prioreschi. May his memory be a blessing.

The Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association exists to connect the over 1000 alumni of the Phi Kappa Theta Ohio Alpha Beta chapter at Case Western Reserve University through events, newsletters, and other gatherings.

Our subsidiary organization, the Ohio Alpha Beta Housing Corporation, exists to own, maintain, and improve the Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter House located at 11016 Magnolia Drive, Cleveland, OH, 44106.

Please add @‌ohioalphabeta.org to your contact list to ensure delivery of the Paragon.

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11016 Magnolia Dr
Cleveland, OH 44106
United States