Rick Neel: DTD at MC #19

Hello everybody,
Hope that all of you had a great summer! And now that school is back in session, I thought that I'd send another note. Like always, any news you have to share with your brothers, let me know and I'll pass it along.

I have a couple of new names to add to the list; Tyler Johnson and Tim Parsons. I posted a note on the alumni message board at the college and got 2 responses.

Welcome guys. If you are in touch withany brothers, pass this along to them and ask them to get in touch with me. I'd like to get them added to the mailing list.

I just got home from vacation and had the opportunity to stop by the chapter house (I didn't think that anyone would be there yet, butI was pleasantly surprised). I ran into Brian Ashton, the chapter Rush Chairman and we had a chance to talk for an hour or two. I sure enjoyed the visit and hope that Brian did also.

Here is what I learned:

The chapter this year is very involved in the student government of the campus, almost every office on campus is held by a Delt, most of the RA's (all of the Freshman RA's) are Delts, and several Delts are involved in the Leadership program. That is the reason that there were several of the guys on campus. They were involved in freshman orientation (is that a rush advantage or what?!)

The college this summer spent some money and time doing work on the house. They replaced all of the mattresses for the guys (as I remember the beds, that is a huge thing!) and replaced the floor tile in the bathrooms and kitchen. It looked really nice. Brian told me that last summer, the college removed a bathtub and put in another shower stall also. My comment was, "what do guys need with abathtub?"

The chapter has about 20 seniors graduating this year, so they need a good sized pledge class just to replace themselves. DTD International has a goal for the chapter of 25 men. Hopefully they can get 25 great guys to help the chapter continue to improve. Brian told me that at Karnea, he learned fromthe Chapter Consultant that EU is under consideration for a Hugh Shields award!

Hopefully they will deserve the honor.

The freshman class at the college this year is in the 480-500range! That's a huge freshman class, however it is apparently 2/1 women to men. What a terrible thing that is!! Sure would have been nice to have those odds when I was an undergrad.

Marietta College is a "hot spot" campus wide, so if you are inMarietta and need to get online, go to the college!

While I was in Columbus, I got an opportunity to have dinner with Randy "Awk" Williams, a friend from DTD and high school. Of course we spent most of our time talking about high school, but we did discuss my prowess on the golf course. Randy said that he couldn't believe that I was a superstar and was going to come play next spring at our annual golf outing. Ha! I'll show you, Awk. Bring it on!

He tells me that his kids (3 sons) are doing well and like all of us, he is very proud of them. One is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan and spent a year in Paris teaching English. In order to do this, he had to spend 6 months learning French, which he didn't know when he took the job! His middle son is an accomplished woodworker, whose speciality is kitchen cabinets on remodels and new homes. All designed and made by hand. His youngest is still searching for what he wants to do with his life, like a lot of us at that age.

Randy has committed to joining us for the chapter's 40th anniversary, hopefully all of you are making plans. It is in 2008 (bet you all know that by now :-) ).

Homecoming this year is the weekend of October 13 -15th. Markyour calendars and come on by to the house and join us. That's all Ihave this time, drop me a line and let me know what's going on with you.

Rick Neel '73