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Paragon March 2024 |
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Call for Volunteers: Homecoming 2024 Join Us for Initiation in April Chapter Wins Awards from Greek Life March Work Weekend is a Success |
Upcoming Events April May July November |
| A Message from the President |
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Brothers, I am writing this shortly after the conclusion of our March 23-24, 2024 alumni work weekend. This was our 8th work weekend since we began doing these events just two short years ago. I remain very grateful to Pat Glynn and the housing committee for their work in organizing these events and to all alumni who make time to attend them, especially those of us who travel to Cleveland to be there. One thing I was struck by this particular work weekend, was that the undergraduate brothers were not only participating in improving the chapter house but were making plans for future alumni work weekends as well. It seems as though we have started a new tradition that our brothers expect to continue indefinitely into the future. And I hope they are correct! Our chapter house is well over 100 years old and like all homes it requires continual maintenance and upkeep. I am hoping to start a new tradition in just a few short weeks on May 11th, wherein we will elect 4 new members to our Board of Directors for a three-year term. As I have mentioned previously, the same group of alumni primarily from the late 90s and early 2000s have been driving the work of the alumni association since we re-established it in 2021. However, in the past, it has been more recent alums who led the charge. I am hopeful that a 12 person board with rotating terms, will provide continuity to ensure that the alumni work weekends, and all other new traditions we’ve established, continue indefinitely. Over the coming weeks, I will be making some personal phone calls to people who I believe would be well-suited to serve on the BOD. I hope that you will consider giving back to the chapter in the spirit of our fraternity motto “Give, expecting nothing thereof.” Speaking of which, I would like to thank Donald Akers, Robert Sepsi, and Robert Stalder for their contributions to our general fund, as well as John Fecek and Michael Urbancic for donating to our composite repair and replacement initiative.
Yours in the Bonds, Nicholas DeCenzo |
| Call for Volunteers: Homecoming 2024 |
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Ohio Alpha Beta Homecoming 2024 will be held on Saturday, November 16th. If you attended our Homecoming event last year, you know it was a success! Building upon this success, the Alumni Board has started discussing plans for this year's Homecoming, and came to realize that we're missing one key component: YOU! We need your help to make Homecoming 2024 a memorable event for every attendee. If you are able to help in any way, we would love have you be part of the planning committee. Do you have fresh ideas you'd like to see at this year's event? Please share them with us! Currently, there are 5 areas where we know we could use volunteers:
Fortunately, much of the above can actually be done remotely, so you do not need to be a Cleveland local to help! To be part of the 2024 Homecoming planning committee, simply send a message to Ken Nagano (nagano@ohioalphabeta.org) and indicate which aspect of planning you're interested in the most. We are looking forward to hearing from you! |
| Join Us for Initiation in April |
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On Friday, April 12, support the chapter on Friday in welcoming five new members to our brotherhood! As is tradition, the associate members know about the Long Walk but believe Initiation will be on a later date. Please maintain the surprise if you see them. We will be meeting at Eldred Hall at 10:30pm with Initiation to start at 11:00pm. Additionally, the brothers have a tradition of treating our associate members to dinner at a classy restaurant the night of their initiation. Alumni are welcome to join us for dinner at Mallorca at 1390 W 9th St in Cleveland at 6:00pm on Friday, April 12. To ease administrative hassles, please RSVP and pre-pay $50 for food, tax and tip. Shirt and tie required at a minimum. Please RSVP no later than Tuesday, April 9, to attend dinner. No RSVP needed for Initiation itself. |
| Chapter Wins Awards from Greek Life! |
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Every year Office of Greek Life Office at CWRU presents the Giortaste Awards. Giortaste means (roughly) celebration in Greek, and the awards are meant to celebrate the accomplishments of the fraternities and sororities at Case. This year, the Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta picked up two awards. Will Woodfint ‘23 received the Anvil Award, which is presented to the outstanding chapter president. In addition, the chapter as a whole received the Agnar Pyttte Commitment to Citizenship Award. Congratulations brothers! |
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| Alumni Roundtable Held |
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In our February issue, the undergraduate chapter requested help from an alumnus to share their experiences and suggestions on applying for jobs, interviewing and resume planning. Alumnus Joseph Reed ‘03 answered the call and joined the chapter virtually on Friday, March 22 for a special round table on career planning. Joe is currently a Lead Software Engineer at Albedo, and he shared his perspectives on the computer science and aerospace industry with the undergraduate brothers. Joe also offered his advice on resume building and job applications. We greatly appreciate his time and effort on behalf of the chapter. |
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Joe Reed ‘03 meets with the undergraduate brothers from his home in the Philadelphia area. |
| March Work Weekend is a Success |
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Our March Work Weekend had to contend with some early spring snowy weather, but with strong attendance from both our undergraduate and alumni members we were able to make some significant improvements to 11016 Magnolia. But first, we enjoyed a night out at Boss Dog Brewing in Cleveland Heights on Friday, March 22. |
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L-R: Joe Banks, Ken Nagano, Nick DeCenzo, Dave Rowan (obscured), Pat Glynn, Brandon Palmer |
| The next morning brothers gathered at the house to complete an assortment of projects. The top priority was replacing the basement flooring around the bar and in the two adjoining rooms. The flooring had been wearing down for years, but the last straw was when we tore out a chunk of the floor to replace the sewer line in November 2023. Here’s what that corner of the room to the right of the bar looked like after the repairs. You can see the top layer of tile (beige), the old layer below it (wooden pattern) and then freshly laid cement where the sewer line was replaced. Clearly, this was not going to impress anyone visiting our house, and most likely the tripping hazard wouldn’t have impressed our insurance company either. |
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| The undergraduate brothers had removed all of the layers of tile down to the original cement before work weekend began. Our first order of business was hauling all the debris outside to our rented dumpster. In this photo, compare the original cement with the new cement from the sewer line repair in the bottom left. |
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| With all the debris removed, the baseboards removed and the floor thoroughly vacuumed, it was time to lay some flooring. First a blue under layer that provides insulation and padding was laid down, and from there we started locking in the new vinyl floor. A table saw was kept busy cutting pieces of vinyl to the appropriate lengths to fill in the gaps. We started with the room to the left of the bar. |
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| And here’s that same room with the floor fully laid. |
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| Of course, no project is complete without a little bit of fun. Before we laid the new floor in the room to the right of the bar, we left a hand painted time capsule for a Work Weekend in the far future. |
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The flooring absorbed most of our effort during work weekend, but we did work on some other projects. A lot of drywall was patched, sanded and painted, particularly on the third floor and in the back staircase. Our chosen colors were Sherwin Williams “Irish Cream” for the walls and “Ceiling White” for the ceiling, in case you were wondering. We also replaced two light fixtures in the back stairs, threw out a lot of accumulated trash and ate a lot of pizza. On Saturday, we also hosted some visitors. In December, we recounted the story of Brother Thomas Nilges, who was the president of the chapter when we purchased the house back in 1954. The tale of Tom and his wife Florence was brought to us by his daughter Nancy Wimbiscus, who now lives in Lakewood. It turns out that Nancy had never been to the fraternity house her father helped acquire, so on Saturday she and her sister Jennifer Elaban came by for a tour of the house. |
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We appreciate the efforts of all of our brothers who assisted with the March Work Weekend. Six alumni were on hand: Pat Glynn, Brandon Palmer, Nick DeCenzo, Davey Rowan, Nathan Kossover and Joe Banks. The entire chapter helped out, and the costs of approximately $5000 were divided between the chapter and the alumni association. |
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Work Weekend will return on July 13 and 14, so mark your calendars now! Whether you come for ten minutes, ten hours or two full days, we hope to see you there.
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| Composite Fundraiser Update: One Down, One to Go |
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Our story so far: As we no longer have the originals of our 1965 and 1969 composites, we have obtained small personal size copies which we intend to blow up and return to the walls to the house. Thanks to generous donations from John Fecek and Michael Urbancic, we have collected enough donations to replace the 1969 composite! Thank you brothers! We still have a ways to go before we have enough donations on hand to replace the 1965 composite. Your donations can help us return to our brothers to the walls of the house. Click on the picture to donate! |
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| Chapter Eternal: J. Carl Besich ‘57 |
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The Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association has been informed of the passing of alumnus J. Carl Besich ‘57 on February 1, 2024. No obituary is currently available online, but according to his classmate Ross Hackel ‘57, at the time of his death, Carl was living in a nursing home in Phoenix, Arizona. He had been ill for some time before his death. Carl was initiated into Phi Kappa on November 1, 1954. At that time we were stlll living in the house on Cornell, but things were about to change. We acquired 11016 Magnolia on December 30, 1954, which means that Carl was a member of the very last pledge class to be initiated before we moved into our current location. The Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association extends its condolences to the family, friends and fraternity brothers of Brother Besich. May his memory be a blessing. |
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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. 11016 Magnolia Dr
Cleveland, OH 44106 United States |
Will Woodfint ‘23 accepts his Anvil Award. Congratulations Will!
L-R: Jennifer Elaban and Nancy Wimbiscus, daughters of Thomas Nilges ‘57