Happy House-aversary!
Brothers,
On December 30, 1954, the Phi Kappa chapter at the Case Institute of Technology purchased a 39-year-old house at 11016 Magnolia. That makes today our House-aversary! A lot has changed in the subsequent 69 years, including the name of the fraternity and the name of the university, but at least one thing hasn’t changed. As an alumni newsletter stated in 1972: "We like this chapter house and expect to remain indefinitely."
11016 Magnolia in 1955. Photo provided by John Kobak ‘58.
As we celebrate 69 years, raise a glass to the memory of Brother Thomas Nilges. Tom was the president of the active chapter when we purchased the house back in 1954. Ironically, Tom never officially lived in the house he helped Phi Kappa acquire. He was a “townie” (aka, a commuter student) and lived with his parents in Fairview Park throughout his college years. Most days he commuted with his good friend Tom Thornton, who also was initiated into Phi Kappa.
The Phi Kappa’s of 1955. Tom Nilges is the president, just above the 19. His commuting partner Tom Thornton is above ’Phi’. If you stop by the house, you can check out this composite in the Red Room
Tom Nilges was the youngest of eight children (seven boys, one girl) of William and Josephine Nilges. William Nilges was a builder who built homes in Lakewood and Bay Village. Tom and several of his older brothers worked for their father when they were teenagers. William Nilges helped arrange the mortgage which was used to acquire 11016 Magnolia and was instrumental in renovating it for the fraternity when it was acquired. A huge opening formal event was held for the house with fraternity executives from National and other Phi Kappa chapters in attendance. This may have been the event where the bishop of Cleveland blessed the house.
Tom graduated in 1956 from Western Reserve University with a pre-med degree. Tom followed that up with an engineering degree from Case Institute of Technology in 1957. He then earned his medical degree from The Ohio State University. Like all seven of his older siblings, Tom joined the military and ended up completing his residency at Walter Reed Medical Center as a member of the army. After completing his service during the Vietnam War, he returned to Cleveland in 1971 and opened his own medical practice in Lakewood. Dr. Nilges passed away in 2001.
Tom Nilges with his parents William and Josephine Nilges when he graduated from CIT in 1957.
How do we know all this information about Dr. Nilges? Earlier this year, Tom’s daughter, Nancy Wimbiscus, reached out to us via Facebook looking to fill in some stories her mother Florence Nilges had shared with her before she passed away. We were happy to oblige, and Nancy shared some stories and photos in return.
Nancy provided this photo of her parents; she believes this might be from the night they met at a Phi Kappa mixer in February 1954 at the rented Phi Kappa house on Cornell.
Tom is to the right of Florence. The two men on the left are unidentified but based on her father’s yearbook, Nancy guesses they *might* be J. Sternad and E. Maslowski. If anyone can positively identify them, please let us know. One small downside of black & white photography is that we can’t be certain that this is the infamous Purple Passion punch which John Kobak ‘58 reports was “190 proof lab alcohol mixed with grape and grapefruit juice via ‘chemical apparatus’.”
In February 1954, Florence Hurcomb was a freshman nursing student at St. John’s College when Tom walked into her dorm building to invite the residents to a mixer for Lincoln’s Birthday. Florence and three other girls took him up on his offer and climbed into the yellow 1949 Dodge convertible (possibly a Dodge Wayfarer) that Tom shared with one of his brothers. Florence sat next to Tom in the front seat, and the rest is history. By the end of the night Tom had decided to ditch his girlfriend in favor of Florence. Don’t cry too much for that former girlfriend; she married another Phi Kappa brother.
Tom and Florence were engaged in December 1955. Florence ended up dropping out of nursing school a few months later in the middle of her junior year. She and Tom wanted to get married in April 1956, and married women were not allowed to attend St. John’s. The wedding went ahead as scheduled; Tom’s fellow commuter Tom Thornton was a groomsman. The new Mr. and Mrs. Nilges moved into a new home in Bay Village that Tom built with the help of his father and brothers.
The newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Nilges on their wedding day.
You can listen to Florence tell stories about her life and family, as well as Phi Kappa parties, the acquisition of the house, and other college hijinks that Tom was involved in courtesy of an audio recording made for StoryCorps about a week before she passed away in March 2022. You can listen to Florence tell her story here:
https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/a-wee-bit-o-time-on-st-patricks-day-with-mom/?UTM=storycorpsapp2
Check out these Phi Kappa highlights at the following timestamps:
- 10:06 – How Florence and Tom met.
- 14:30 – Their first official date for Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. The Phi Kaps were in the parade.
- 15:30 – A quick overview of the Cornell house and how they found and purchased the house on Magnolia.
- 17:09 – A very brief description of the meal plan and the cook. Based on separate information from Ross Hackel ‘57 this may have been Dora Green; she started cooking for Phi Kappa at the Cornell location. If Dora Green’s married name was Dora Dix, she was the cook through at least 1982.
- 20:20 – Commuter student life.
- 23:30 – Florence drops out of St. John’s. Tom gets an additional degree.
- 26:22 – More about their memorable first meeting. Details of the mixer, including a description of the “Purple Passion.”
- 28:12 – Florence describes a big inter-collegiate fraternity activity.
Florence’s memory wasn’t perfect. At one point she states that she thinks the Phi Kaps no longer own 11016 Magnolia because various University Circle organizations got a hold of it. We are happy to report that Florence got that one wrong, but it worked out better this way. Florence’s lack of certainty on that detail was quite uncharacteristic, and that prompted Nancy to search online to find out for herself what happened as she thought about her parents this past Father’s Day. Nancy was very surprised to find our April 11 Facebook post featuring a photo of the house from her mother’s stories!
We’d like to extend a big thank you to Nancy Wimbiscus for reaching out to us and sharing the stories and photos of her parents. Thank you!
Did this story jog some memories loose of your own? Maybe you knew Tom and Florence, or maybe you just have fun stories of your own about marching in a St. Patrick’s Day parade, picking up girls from area schools for parties, or something else fun you might like to share. Whatever the case (or possibly the Case), please contact Nathan Kossover at secretary@ohioalphabeta.org and we can share them in a future issue of the Paragon.
If you want to learn more about the history of 11016 Magnolia, we wrote a three part history of the house with your help earlier in 2023. Ever wondered when the house was built, who owned it before us, or what life was like in the house circa 1955? We can help!
- Renting on Cornell, Acquiring 11016 Magnolia, and Ernie Schmidt
- 11016 Magnolia through 1921
- 11016 Magnolia from 1921 to the present day
Happy House-aversary! Happy New Year! Here’s to another 69 years of Phi Kappa Theta at 11016 Magnolia! "We like this chapter house and expect to remain indefinitely."
Brothers of Phi Kappa Theta, let us be faithful.
Nathan Kossover
Secretary, Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association
Phi Kappa Theta
