Founders Day 2004

Roy Ockert (left) and John Phelps are reunited with George in 2004.

George Spasyk returns

for Founders Day 2004

By Roy Ockert Jr.

Iota Theta 203

George Spasyk has a few more lines on his face, and he seems a little

shorter. The lines come to all of us with age. A difference in height

is probably imaginary; he seemed like such a giant in our youth.

And he still is today — retired from Lambda Chi Alpha national

fraternity after 18 years as chapter services director and 22 years as

executive director. But George didn’t retire from the brotherhood, and

he proved that again with another visit to Iota Theta Zeta for Founders

Day April 16-17, something he has done at least every five years since

he helped charter Iota Theta.

In his retirement George still visits 10-12 campus chapters a year, and

he has agreed to consult with the national organization in its search

for a new executive vice president. Easy job — just find someone

exactly like George Spasyk.

George’s audience for this year’s Founders Day ranged from gray-haired

charter members to baby-faced associates — no doubt the greatest

difference in age of our zeta’s history. And, as always, he held

everyone spellbound as he explained the history and meaning of our

brotherhood.

“Much of my service with Lambda Chi Alpha parallels the history of Iota

Theta,” he said. “I knew and worked with all of your founding fathers.”

He told the story of that founding, recalling that A-State’s dean of

students, Robert Moore, phoned Cyril F. “Duke” Flad, then LXA executive

director, in the spring of 1958 to tell him that the college’s Veterans

Club was looking to affiliate with a national fraternity.

“The Veterans Club had formed a true bond of brotherhood within the

group,” George said. He was dispatched to Jonesboro to meet with the

club and assess its possibilities.

“I was less than enthusiastic,” he said. “These were not typical

students. There was no organized recruiting program. The club was

restricted to veterans, and their numbers were declining. Why was I

wasting my time?

“How wrong I was!”

George reflected, as if they were yesterday, on his many visits to the

club in the ensuing months — the drive to Memphis and then through the

cotton fields to Jonesboro. He said for a time he conducted more

fraternity business at the Pete’s Motel cafe than at headquarters.

“On that first trip I visited with Dean Moore and formed a friendship

with him that lasted until he died. I met with about 50 members of the

Veterans Club. ... My reservations about the Veterans Club were erased

within a few minutes.

“They were already a fraternity. They had maturity. They had

leadership. They were organized. They were doing community service

projects. They were developing social skills.

“My recommendation was to install the Veterans Club as a colony. ... I

was here for the first initiation, and I was here for the first 10

initiations.”

He recalled that A-State, which already had four other fraternities,

had some of the most archaic rush rules of any he had seen. Rush

functions were held in the Wigwam. Except for the rush parties, members

were restricted from talking to rushees on campus. Each rushee would

turn in a list of his top three fraternity preferences, and each

fraternity would turn in a list of its preferences up to 27. Dean Moore

would then sort them out and announce the results.

For the first rush the chapter extended bids to 28 men, George said,

hoping to get at least 20.

“The next day Dean Moore was amazed. ‘I’ll be a son of a bitch,’ he

said. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ Twenty-six of the chosen

rushees had selected Lambda Chi as their first choice. In fact,

altogether about 45 had listed Lambda Chi as first choice.

“Jim Lundberg [Iota Theta 28] asked who the SOB was that didn’t pick

us. It turned out that he was the brother of the Tau Kappa Epsilon

president.”

Iota Theta had a rough beginning, though. The chapter received its

charter one day, then was put on probation the next day because of a

post-installation party at Craighead Forest.

“Missouri-Rolla was the installing chapter that got you in trouble,”

George related. “About 5 a.m. the next morning I got a tap on the

shoulder from Dean Moore. ‘George, wake up,’ he said. ‘We’ve got a

problem.’”

A carload of Rolla members and their dates had been picked up by

Jonesboro police and were in jail. One of the dates was the daughter of

a prominent politician. George and the dean went to the jail, paid

their fines and sent them home.

“High Alpha Jim Clement was the sacrificial lamb, but the whole chapter

was responsible, ...” George said. “How did the chapter respond? It

became the most outstanding chapter in the national organization and

remained so for about 15 years.

“All without a chapter house. They took a dungy basement room in Danner

Hall and turned it into a warm meeting room.”

He also reflected on the loss of Mark Crow, Iota Theta 212, who died in

an auto accident in 1966, comparing the devastating effect on the

chapter to the 2002 loss of Marcus Murphy, also in an auto accident.

“I have watched with pride as your brothers went on to become doctors,

lawyers, prominent businessmen. ...” George concluded. “My

responsibilities as executive director did not allow me to come back as

often, but I keep in touch with many brothers, and I have been back

every five years for Founders Day.

“The success of Iota Theta rests on the shoulders of many brothers,

especially that band of brothers who started this organization.”

He quoted the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

Jr.: “Life is action and passion; therefore it is required of a man

that he should share the passion and action of the time, at peril of

being judged not to have lived.”

“Share the action and the passion of this fraternity,” George urged.