For whatever reason, the Adelphikos Fraternity is no longer a part of the Grove City College landscape. Is there anything we can do about this situation?

Some suggestions:

1. Write to the college and express your feelings regarding reinstating the fraternity.

2. Withhold any donations to the college and give the reason why.

3. Show up in large numbers at this year's homecoming and express your displeasure.

4. Create a virtual fraternity on the Web and attract future pledges.

5. Tap new members for the Adels becoming a secret society once again.

The following is a letter received from Thomas Morris. It sheds some light on the mystery of what happened to the Adelphikos Fraternity:

Dear Gary,

Was playing with the toy and typed in Adelphikos and you popped up. I'm Thomas J. Morris III, Adel, Class of 1977. When I got to GCC in 1973, Red Fred was still there but Harker had just retired and Charles MacKensie had taken over. The school went from "what kind of rifles do your shoot" to "yours in Christ". We were still in 3rd and half the 2nd floors of Lincoln, when I arrived and when I left. Because of grades problems, I did not pledge until JAN 75 as a sophmore vice JAN 74 as a freshman. As a consequence, I was not killed. Your site said the driver was drunk. He was not. He was stone sober but asleep at the wheel. Otherwise, he would have been indicted for vehicular manslaughter vice a couple of traffic tickets.

Nevertheless, the ensuing law suits against the Frat, the Frat Pres., Dale Smock (Adel '42 and advisor), MacKensie, and the College changed everything. Pledging went from three weeks to two weeks and a service project week, all of us who hunted and kept our guns in our rooms had to take them home (in theory at least - I had 8 rifles and shotguns and a revolver in my room when I graduated) or face expulsion, and there was a serious crackdown on all fraternal activities as well as anything even remotely risky (eg. the GCC Outing Club could no longer have official Canada trips to see Doc Kase in Canada, or go caving, white water rafting, sky diving, shoot or hunt, or anything else but roller skate or go to the cabin). The death knell had sounded.

We resisted the attempts by the college and I fear we paid a price although the Chi Dels were the first to go under. The chief of security, one Harry Lutton, actually wrote to my father AFTER I GRADUATED about smuggling beer into the dorms and how he thought I was a trouble maker (this was after he had attacked a student who was suspended right before graduation and died in an auto accident with his girlfriend (the only witness other than he, Lutton and Lutton's wife - the meter maid) and Lutton had gotten off scot free and I had written two lengthly acticles in the Collegian about him and the incident. Only the first article got published - after being called down to the Dean and being "asked" to withdraw it and told them to suspend me first. Lutton started monitoring my mail after the first article and the second was intercepted before it reached the Collegian - I found that out from two other security officers who were there when he was waiving it around and ranting and raving. That was the first of two times I had threatened to sue the Grove. The second time also involved Lutton and occurred ten years later. To this day, I hope he gets some horrible, painful, incurable disease and lives to be 150 although that will still be small consolation to Walt Hoods parents.

1983 was the last year for off campus housing. That ended parties off campus for all practical purposes. The College then put the squeeze to Senholtz, Paul Faire, and several other landlord Profs to make sure students/Townies were not renting places, and they had moles watching Pardoe, the Sportmans Club etc. for combiners. Meanwhile, Ed & Babe Herrons out by Sandy Lake was being watched as well for underage drinking and I think the school had a hand in it as well. The big senior graduation bash became a thing of the past. God, they had the best sandwiches on home made bread that I ever ate.

Anyway, I try to keep tabs on things because I was bound and determined that the Outing Club would not suffer the same fate. Luckily, we had a much more cohesive alumni association which spanned the years vice the fraternity that was more graduation year centered with little contact between the years and no specific person in the frat who's job it was to make sure alumini were involved, kept up to date, and solicited for help. The Outing Club is alive and well and will remain so as long as I am alive. The fraternity was another case altogether.

And I also remember a second verse to the hymn beginning "Life presents a dismal picture, from the cradle to the tomb". And I also remember the words in the other song you listed as being tits, not hips, and hogs, not women. I was fraternal song director senior year and I believe I still have about 10-12 songs written down from 1977.

And so it goes. Cannot seem to connect with the site on the reunion or the site for the kid from Pitt. Feel free to drop me a line if I can ever be of service. I am still in contact with about half of the Class of 77 Adels (all of whom were also Outing Clubbers - the Club cabin being the Adel sacrificial pit in the woods when we were there - zounds - a school with almost non existent intervisitation and where we did not even have coed dining until 1974 and we had this cabin with two fireplaces in the middle of the woods - Allah is Great!) And as for me, I went into the Marine Corps (actually enlisted in the Officer Program - PLC freshman year at the Grove - the ultimate 100% effective way to avoid the draft), went to the University of Akron Law School, practiced law for a number of years in and out of the Marine Corps, and became the largest Federal Cartridge law enforcement ammunition distributor and the second largest Heckler & Koch pistol/machine gun/submachine gun distributor in the US - there are few problems in the world that cannot be solved with the application of a sufficient amount of explosives!

Fraternally,
Thomas J. Morris III
Adel 1977 BS BIO/BA PSYCH
VP GCC Outing Club Alum. Assoc.
Major USMCR (RET)
Member NJ & PA Bars
majortjmorrisiiiusmcr@hom.com

The Adels were not the only ones to suffer a loss of charter. Click here to read about the Betas

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