The National Conclave is to be held next September at Manhattan, Kansas, the home of Epsilon Chapter, at Kansas State College. The mem­bers of the Epsilon Chapter wish to extend a most cordial invitation to all chapters to attend the Conclave. Already a great deal of work has been done in the hope of making the meetings entirely successful. We believe that we cannot only offer delegates an interesting time, but one which will be entertaining.

The Epsilon Chapter has again led the engineering division’s activities. The fall semester was begun with the annual Sigma Tau smoker. All engineers eligible for membership were invited. From those who attended the smoker, 24 were elected and initiated into the Epsilon Chapter. During the spring semester, 19 pledges were installed into active membership.

This year 14,000 people visited the annual Engineers’ Open House, which was under the management of Sphinx Joe Redmond. The Open House was concluded with St. Pat’s Prom, sponsored by Sigma Tau, and featuring Joe Venuti’s orchestra and his famous violin.

Kenneth K. Bowman, an alumnus of the Epsilon Chapter, this year was awarded the highest honor the General Electric Company confers on its employees. This honor was the Charles A. Coffin Foundation award, given by the company to those employees "who achieve greatly in the per­formance of their duties and furtherance of the electrical industry.”

All of the many activities were carried out under the following officers: Joseph Redmond, President; Bob Lake, Vice-President; Bob Pyle, Corre­sponding Secretary; Edward Sefcik, Recording Secretary; Charles Webb, Treasurer, and Morris Willis, Historian. The officers for the coming year are William Keogh, President; Victor Mellquist, Vice-President; Bert Sells, Recording Secretary ; Garland Childers, Corresponding Secre­tary; Bob Washburn, Treasurer; Fred Eyestone, Historian.

Among the articles written by members of the Epsilon Chapter are the following which appeared in the Kansas State Engineer: “Strides of Catalysis”, Carrol Owensby, Ch.E. ’40; “Wheat Storage”, Gus Fairbanks, Ag.E. ’40; “Bridge Ahoy”, Jack Fuller, C.E. ’40, and “D.C. Transmission”, Fred Eyestone, E.E. 40.

The following is a list of honors received and offices held by members of Epsilon Chapter:

• Dynamis Club (All-School Honorary Society)—Vice-president; three members.

• American Institute of Electrical Engineering (Student Branch)—Corre­sponding secretary; treasurer; chairman; recording secretary.

• Phi Lambda Upsilon (Honorary Chemical)—President; president-elect; vice-president; secretary; five members.

• Presbyterian-Christian Endeavor—Two cabinet members.

• Phi Sigma Kappa (Social Fraternity)—President.

• Eta Kappa Nu (Honorary Electrical Engineering Society)—President; vice-president; corresponding secretary; recording secretary; treasurer; 10 members.

• Steel Ring (Engineering Honorary)—President-elect; vice-president; secretary ; marshal; 12 members.

• Engineers Open House—Three committee chairmen; secretary; manager; publicity tour chairman.

• American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Student Branch)—President; vice-president; treasurer; Chapter Scholarship award.

• Engineering Council—Seven members or members-elect.

• American Society of Mechanical Engineering (Student Branch)—Chair­man; Senior award; secretary.

• Mortar and Ball (Honorary R. O. T. C. Artillery)—Treasurer; seven members.

• Student Council—Three members.

• Pi Mu Epsilon (Honorary Mathematics Society)—Vice-president: vice-chairman; nine members.

• Mathematics Club—President.

• Radio Club-President.

• Electrical Engineering Faculty Gold Medal.

• Electrical Engineering Faculty Scholarship.

• Electrical Engineering Senior award.

• Phi Kappa Phi—Six members.

• Pi Tau Sigma (Honorary Mechanical Engineering)—President; presi­dent-elect ; vice-president; vice-president-elect; secretary; treasurer; sixmembers.

• Kansas State Engineer—Editor; four staff members.

• Blue Key (Senior Men’s Honorary)—Three members.

• Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities—Two.

• Sigma Xi—One member.

• Alpha Phi Omega (National Scouting Fraternity)—One member. 

• Scabbard and Blade (Honorary R. O. T. C. Infantry)—Five members. 

• Mechanical Engineering Seminar—Vice-president.

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Student Branch)—Presi­dent ; vice-president; secretary.

• American Society of Civil Engineers (Student Branch)—Secretary

• Alpha Rho Chi Medal in Architecture.

• Phi Kappa (Social Fraternity)—President.

• Newman Club—President.

• Student Board of Publications—One member.

• Flying' Wildcats-One member.

• Agriculture Engineering Seminar-—President.

• Senior Men’s Pan-Hellenic—President.

• American Boad Builders Association—President.

• Alpha Kappa Lambda (Social Fraternity)—President.

Not only to students in the engineering division, but to all of some 4000 students enrolled at Kansas State College the name Sigma Tau strikes a note of high esteem and respect. Though by far not the only honorary organization on the campus, it is the only one of national status which draws its membership from all branches of engineering. Architec­tural, mechanical, electrical, chemical, agricultural and civil engineers are all represented.

Membership in Sigma Tau represents the ultimate in honorary societies. Knowledge of the ideals and standards of the organization are not publi­cized at great length by campus politics nor ballyhoo. Rather, they are brought to light by the achievements of its members and the worthwhile projects of the organization as a whole. While this tends to draw the most suitable candidates for membership, Epsilon Chapter goes a step farther and promotes the desire further by offering scholarship awards each spring to the three sophomores who, in their freshman year, maintained the highest averages. This competition stimulates students to greater heights in an effort for the recognition.

One of Epsilon’s Sigma Tau sponsored projects which is outstanding among all events of the year, is Engineer’s Open House and St. Pat’s Prom. Last year, under the guiding hand of Brother Joe Redmond, Kansas State College played host to more than 14,000 persons over a two-day period in which the engineering division was put on display and exhibition. A goodly portion of these visitors stayed to St. Pat’s Prom which followed and were handsomely entertained by a wonderful program origin­ating entirely with the local chapter and under supervision oi Brother Bob Lake. This spectacle proved to be not only the outstanding event of the year but the. biggest Open House in the history of the school. Brothers Redmond and Lake were President and Vice-President of Epsilon Chapter last year. The supplementary factor which spelled success for both Open House and Sigma Tau was the excellent handling of publicity by Brother Raymond Bukaty.

Though Open House for 1941 is yet months away, plans for a still greater and more successful event are being outlined by this year's manager, Brother Bert Sells, who in addition to being Open House manager,' occupies the chair of recording secretary in the present cabinet, and is responsible for maintenance of Kansas State smoker, banquet and maintains monu­ment. It is through the medium of accomplishments such as the above mentioned that Epsilon Chapter is contributing to the welfare and advance­ment of outstanding activities at Kansas State College. It is also through this medium that the three most important things which Sigma Tau signifies are definitely established, namely, scholarship, practicality and sociability.

Of 37 organizations canvassed, all profession, honorary or technical, it was found that an accumulative sum of 149 memberships were held by Sigma Tau members. Of this vast representation, 57 cabinet positions existed, which proves Sigma Tau a criteria for the development of out­standing character and leadership. Certainly, this provides something of material and worthwhile value, which is the fundamental aim of the organization.

Passing judgment does not end at this point. As a means of furthering the incentive of the individual member to do greater things, there exists the ever-present record of the members who leave the immediate associations to which they are accustomed while in school but continue on the outside to advance in their chosen profession. Kenneth K. Bowman, an alumnus of Epsilon Chapter, this year was awarded the highest honor the General Electric Company confers on its employees. This honor was the Charles A. Coffin Foundation award, given by the company to those employees “who achieve greatly in the performance of their duties and furtherance of the electrical industry.”

Another alumnus who in 1935 resigned his position on the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department has, of recent date, been in charge, of building studio control apparatus for the new television, station of the Crosley Radio Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is Maurice W. Horrell, formerly in charge of television research at Kansas State College.

Other alumni members may be found with virtually every major concern in the engineering industry: General Electric, Westinghouse, Lehigh Port­land Cement Company, Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Wright Aero­nautical Corporation, Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, Boeing Aircraft Corporation, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, U. S. Army Engineering Corps, U. S. Marine Corps, DeLaval Steam Turbine Company, other gov­ernment agencies, and, in fact, concerns dealing in every line.

Two of Epsilon’s most recent Presidents are at the present occupying very responsible positions: Duane Jehlik, 1938-39, is in Victoria, Texas, with the Magnolia Oil Company; Joseph Redmond, 1939-40, is located at Schenectady, New York, where he is employed by the General Electric Company.

Chapter meetings are held twice monthly in the Chapter room in Nichols Gymnasium. The Secretary succeeds in getting the greater majority of the members to the meetings by issuing printed cards through the mail in the college post office. Attendance is usually very good. Only the imme­diate business is taken up, except on occasion where conclusive planning and arbitration must transpire, thus the time of the members is not wantonly wasted. The meetings are strictly of “free discussion” nature.

Selection of new members, once in the fall and once in the spring is carried on by secret ballot after a free discussion of the candidate. At the meeting before election, names of all eligible students, with their scholastic averages, are presented to the Chapter. Restricted discussion is held at which any member may discuss very briefly the qualifications of the candidates. At the election meeting two weeks following, the members request the names of the men they would like to have balloted. Open discussion is held again upon each man as he comes up for balloting. When all the discussion of the candidate has been held, secret voting is held by means of playing card ballots, red to elect, black to reject. The entire list of names is run through in this manner. There are very few instances, if any, when sufficient members are obtained on the first ballot, so the list is generally gone through once more. However, after the first ballot the names usually considered are those with less than three “black balls,” although a member may request a second ballot to be held upon any candi­date. The discussion of the candidates, which may continue on any of the following ballots, is usually stopped at the discretion of the Sphinx. The number of new members usually number around twenty for each semester.

Scholarship is the only fundamental rating scale employed by our Chapter. Personality and sociability contribute to the rating, but exists not as a definite rating.

As enrollment now stands in Epsilon Chapter, with respect to the upper third of junior and senior students in school, the percentage who are members measure between 25 and 30.

The outstanding problem which Epsilon Chapter has to offer to the conclave for comment arises from the Freshman Scholarship Awards: Since three awards are given for the highest averages existing among prospective engineers, is it permissible to award a female? Because the award statement refers to “the highest” with no mention as to sex, it was generally concluded in our chapter discussions that it was entirely satisfactory, the matter originating last spring due to the appearance of a female on “the highest” list.

Another technicality which is slightly in the dark is whether or not the key can be used for decorative purposes such as at banquets, dances or for publication of Sigma Tau interests.

The records of this chapter are complete and in very good order. A financial statement accompanies this report on a separate sheet.

Our funds are collected and all the bills paid by the Treasurer. The bills, before being paid, must be presented in the meeting and upon motion duly passed; then the Secretary and President sign the order which autho­rizes the Treasurer to pay the bill.

Loan funds are not maintained by the chapter at the present time. The feasibility of such a plan is being investigated, however.

Victor G. Mellquist,

Vice President of Epsilon Chapter.

Kansas State College has over a thousand young men enrolled in the Division of Engineering from which Sigma Tau chooses its approximate twenty members each semester. Sigma Tau has proven to be one of the most outstanding organizations on the Kansas State campus through the activities of its members and the accomplishments of the chapter as a whole.

St. Pat’s Prom, an annual event sponsored by Sigma Tau, had 1,000 persons in attendance, which was the largest party of the. year. Kansas State’s now' famous Open House attracted thousands of visitors from all over the state and was hailed as another big success.

Each year Sigma Tau selects some task to promote interest in the Fraternity and be of benefit to the college. One project was the construction of the letters K.S. on one of the massive bluffs which almost surround the City of Manhattan. This impressive monument covers an area 80 feet by 200 feet. Another project which has proven worthwhile was the construction of the Sigma Tau Pyramid in front of the engineering building.

Sigma Tau’s major undertaking this year was being host to the Sigma Tau National Conclave last September. The delegates and National Officers were housed and entertained in various - ways by members of the active chapter, and the Conclave seemed to all the highlight of the year. 

Brother Spear, the new President of Epsilon Chapter, has promise of leading Sigma Tau on to even greater accomplishments this coming year. This past year he was secretary of the Open House event and this year he will serve as manager of this, the largest of the student undertakings at Kansas State. Brother Spear is also president of the Student Council and a member of other organizations.

The graduating members of Sigma Tau have been very active during the past year. The President of Sigma Tau for this past school year was Brother Keogh, one of Kansas State’s most active campus leaders, who filled his office well until the end of the first semester when he was called into active service in the coast artillery. Brother Mellquist, Vice-President of Sigma Tau, took over and served until the spring elections. Brother Sells acted as Secretary for the past year, along with being manager of Open House, president of Pi Tau Sigma, and secretary of Steel Ring. Bob Washburn held the office of Treasurer, and Fred Eyestone, a member of Phi Kappa Phi, and an outstanding campus leader, was the chapter Historian. Other members who have distinguished themselves are Brother Dannielson, pledge captain of Sigma Tau and member of Phi Kappa Phi; and Brother Childers, who rated listing in Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities the past year.

Our new officers and members who promise to be outstanding in campus affairs next year are Brother Spear, our new President, Brother Moss, who is secretary of the Student Council and on the Engineers Council, is Sigma Tau’s new Vice-President; Brother Bixler, a member of the Student Council last year and manager of the Engineers Dance, is on the Engineers Council, and is our new Secretary; Vanderwilt, Treasurer; Dunlap, secretary of Blue Key, Historian; and Schraeber, Corresponding Secretary. Other members who promise to do big things next year are Brother Walker, president of Steel Ring and business manager of The Kansas State Engineering Magazine; Fitzsimmons, president of Mortar and Ball; Piper, circulation manager of The Kansas State Engineering Magazine, and Estey, president of Pi Tau Sigma.

Robert Dunlap,

Historian of Epsilon Chapter.

Another school year for Epsilon Chapter is nearly completed and it has been a successful one. The membership has increased considerably, and the chapter now has seventy-one active members.

This year the chapter renewed its custom of honoring the three freshmen in engineering attaining the highest scholastic average. The Freshman Awards were presented at the Annual Spring Banquet which was held April 21.

Six men were initiated in March and twenty-three more at the Spring Banquet. The new members are as follows: R. L. Curry, Tom Fletcher, Dwight Jones, William McVey, Morris Werner, John J. Hoefer, Reed Larson, Ernest Sellers, Howard Swanson, Richard Swan­son, Leonard Wood, Norman Woolgar, Harvey Spencer, Lawrence Stenenson, John Shupe, Richard Medlin, Gabe Sellers, Jack Harmon, Robert Heline, Clyde Hinman, Vance Miller, Lynn Alford, Robert Berner, Harmon Bear, Ward Haylett, Dale Dronberger, Dale Olsen, Ward Keller and Jack Rieb.

Prof. L. V. White, our faculty sponsor, attended the national meet­ing of Chapter Advisors in Denver, Colorado, December 7, 1946, and made a report on the meeting following his return.

Members spent much of their time this year preparing for Engi­neer’s Open House and St. Pat's Prom, which is sponsored annually by Sigma Tau. The attendance at these events was somewhat hampered this year because of a severe flu epidemic in Manhattan, but nevertheless several thousand persons attended the Open House during the two days it was held. The Prom, which featured Raymond Scott and his or­chestra, was held March 15, climaxing the Open House celebration, and it was an outstanding social event at Kansas State.

With St. Pat's Prom over with, chapter members devoted much of their time to acquiring the plot of ground on “KS” Hill, where the huge concrete letters “KS” are located. Sigma Tau began construction of this monument in 1921 and since its completion it has become one of the landmarks at Kansas State. It is usually an annual job for new pledges to clean and paint these letters, which are over 80 feet high. It has long been a project of this chapter to acquire this land and con­struct a “C” to complete the college letters “KSC”. Members have been giving their services as surveyors in exchange for title to this land and it is hoped that the project can be completed soon.

Sigma Tau has always been the outstanding engineering organization at Kansas State College and this year is no exception. The promin­ence of the chapter is due to its outstanding members and to the help and advice of its chapter advisor. Members are prominent in other ac­tivities and the following are some of the offices which have been held by Sigma Tau members this year: President, Vice President, and Secre­tary of the Engineering Council

• President of I. R. E.

• President and Vice President of A. S. C. E.

• President of A. S. M. E.

• Vice President of A. S. A. E.

• President and Vice President of A. I. C. E.

• President of A. I. E. E.

• President of Eta Kappa Nu

• President and Vice President of Steel Ring

• Student Council Representative.

Case Bonebrake served as President of Sigma Tau during the first semester and Bob Ekblad was President the second semester. The officers elected to serve next year are: Loyd Peterson, President; Gabe Sellers, Vice President; Irvine Gandee, Recording Secretary; Richard Medlin, Treasurer; Earl Couchman, Corresponding Secretary; and Richard Swanson, Historian.

Fraternally yours,

James F. Hadley

Historian.