Jeb Becker, Psi ’61 (Hamilton)

As a ten-year plus member of the Psi Upsilon Executive Council and Foundation and as a twenty year alumni president of the Psi Chapter ( Hamilton College), I have learned the continuing importance and relevance of Psi Upsilon in the lives of our college undergraduates, our future leaders.

My Psi Chapter initiation in the fall of 1957 was attended by my grandfather, John E. Becker, Psi 1903, my father, John C. Becker, Psi ’35 and my uncle, Albert Cassel, Tau ’32. We continue an insurance business began in 1840 by one of our founders, Sterling Goodale Hadley, in Waterloo, NY. Continue reading »

Justina Lakinger, Epsilon Iota ’02 (RPI)

The Epsilon Iota was once described best by the biological brother of one of my then fellow undergrads. He had spent the weekend living in the chapter house with us and, as he was making his way out the door, paused and turned back.

“I’ve been trying to figure out all weekend what you people have in common with each other,” he said, “and the fact is that you have nothing in common but a disgusting excess of personality.”

Justina Lakinger, Epsilon Iota ’02 (RPI)

Peter A. Howley, Delta ’62 (NYU)

My life story is long, exciting, and most unusual, but this note will be short. I entered NYU and became a Psi U pledge almost against my will. My father and older brother had both been Psi U’s there, as would my younger brother the following year.

But I followed no one, a lone wolf frequently in trouble. Surprising to me then, I joined Psi U because of some powerful words from Rino, the young man who became my pledge pappy. That decision over the next four years changed me from a troubled rebel to a leader. A leader, not manager, though managing is certainly part of leading. And taught me the keys to an exciting successful life.

Thank you Psi U and my fellow fraternity mates.

Peter A. Howley, Delta ’62 (NYU)

Howard “Bunky” Baker, Xi ’48 (Wesleyan)

There she was, over 50 years my senior, standing proudly erect, commanding the quadrangle of Wesleyan University, and showing none of the tension, challenge and distress that would have been the undoing of a mother her age. Yes, she was a mother, many times over, and even flowering in another pregnancy today at over 100!.

But, let me explain this biological curiosity. Hundreds of her progeny, all delivered in a variety of attitudes toward mankind, are exclusively and singularly qualified to characterize their private evolutions in the womb of the Lady on the Corner. They have felt the beat of her heart even in the earliest stages of development. They have fondly labeled her core the “Chapter room” and it was the beat of this heart that nurtured the spirit, tested the moral fibers, achieved the compromises, formulated the readiness, and encouraged the aspirations of her offspring. Continue reading »

Howard “Bunky” Baker, Xi ’48 (Wesleyan)

Until the sands of time are run, we`ll sing to you Psi Upsilon. Psi U Finch.