Kentucky Thoroughbred Alumni Club Newsletter

2014 - 2015

Summer Reunion:
It will be held the weekend of July 18th. Right now we
have a golf scramble at 8:30 Saturday morning, an
alumni club meeting at 1:00, and a softball game
around 5:30. The undergraduates are planning
something special for us this year as they will be
initiating the Delta Lambda pledge class at 3:00. We also
have the back room of the Big Apple reserved starting at
7:00. We hope you will come to Murray to rekindle old
friendships and make new ones. The weekend of July
18th is a Summer O session for Murray, so the bookstore
will be open if you want to purchase quality MSU items.

Alumni Club and won the Reston-Fitzpatrick Award for

submissions to the Emerald.
The MSU Alumni Association recognized Andy, Les, and
David with a news article on the raceralumni.com
website. Their terms run until the 2016 Convocation in
Las Vegas.

Homecoming:
Homecoming this year will be the weekend of Oct. 10.
Stop by for the parade and we will have a tent at Tent
City with refreshments and food.

Sigma Pi Convocation:
The biennial Sigma Pi Convocation in 2014 was a special
one for our chapter. Andy Morris () was elected as
Grand Sage and Les Wright () was elected as Grand
Herald. This isnt the first time two members of the
same chapter have been on the Grand Council, but it is
the first time where two members from the same
chapter and era have been elected.
David Presson () was elected to the Sigma Pi
Educational Foundations Board of Trustees. He is now
the Vice Chairman of Investments. As Grand Sage, Andy
Morris is also on the SPEF Board of Trustees. The alumni
clubs representative to convocation, Wyatt Alverson
(Faculty Advisor), served on the Judiciary Committee
during the event. Undergraduate representative Josh
Johnston () served on the Codification Committee.
Our chapter brought home five awards from
Convocation. Gamma Upsilon Chapter was recognized
as one of the Top 25 chapters in the fraternity. The
undergraduates also received awards for membership
increase and report efficiency. The Kentucky
Thoroughbred Alumni Club was named Outstanding

Convocation attendees from our chapter were: Josh

Johnston, Evan McPeak (), David Presson, Andy
Morris, Les Wright, Paul McDonald (), Wyatt Alverson,
Bill Scarola (), and Louis Junkerman () (Not Pictured).

Undergraduates Josh Johnson and Evan McPeak,

Chapter Director Wyatt Alverson, and Grand Sage Andy
Morris and Grand Herald Les Wright with the awards
won by our chapter at the Sigma Pi Convocation. We
won the Membership Recruitment Award, the Grand
Chapter Top 25 Award, the 900 Club Efficiency Award,
the Most Outstanding Alumni Club Award, and the
Reston-Fitzpatrick Award for contributions to the
Emerald.

Membership in Sigma Pi lasts a lifetime!

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Kentucky Thoroughbred Alumni Club Newsletter

2014 - 2015

Chapter Educational Fund News:

Other News:
Brother Graham Lynch () needs a kidney due to renal
failure. Please call the Vanderbilt Kidney Transplant
team at 615-936-0695 to test and see if you are a match.
They can answer your questions. Let them know that
you are calling on behalf of Graham.
Shawn Reynolds () is now the President of the Murray
State University Alumni Associations Board of
Governors.

Then undergraduates Matt Komerous and Dakota Fields

were each awarded a $500 scholarship this past fall.
These are the seventh and eighth scholarships given by
the CEF. Another one will be awarded at Summer
Reunion.
Donations to the CEF are tax deductible and open to
corporate matching funds since SPEF is a 501(c)3 entity.
Donations can be made www.sigmapiedfund.org, by
phone at (800) 332-1897, or mailing a check to 106
North Castle Heights, Lebanon, TN 37087 (remember to
put Gamma Upsilon CEF in the memo field).

Planned Giving:
We ask that you remember the Chapter Endowment
Fund in your estate planning. You can use the statement
below as a guide for donating to the CEF:
I give, devise and bequeath ($______ or _____% residual
of my estate) to the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation,
Inc., a 501 C 3 nonprofit corporation with principal
offices in Lebanon, Tennessee, to be specified for the
Gamma-Upsilon Chapter Educational Fund held by the
Sigma Pi Educational Foundation. *

* Sample statement. Please consult your attorney or

adviser.
SPEFs Tax ID number is 22-6034109.
If you have forms that ask for an address you can use
the international headquarters address for both, which
is: 106 North Castle Heights Ave., Lebanon, TN 37087.
Their phone number is (615) 921-2300.

In the fall semester Les Wright(A) and Andy Morris(B)

promised the pledges that they would pay the pledge
fee of any of them who had a 3.0 GPA for the semester.
Three of our pledges did so, and Les and Andy made
good on their promise. Thanks guys.
Brothers will be running in the Tough Mudder race in
Sparta, KY on June 27. Contact Chuck Ries () ASAP if
you want to be on the Sigma Pi team. His e-mail
address is corrfi62@yahoo.com.

Alumni Club Dues:

Dues are $25 per year. We need money to pay for
Homecoming expenses as well as to assist the active
chapter with Rush and other needs. Please make checks
payable to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Alumni Club and
mail them to our Treasurer, Brian Rickard, at 609 Bailey
Road, Murray, KY 42071. You can also pay on PayPal
by sending money to SigmaPiAlumni@hotmail.com.

Housing Corp News:

You may have heard that we were in discussion about a
property close to campus. That is true but the talks
have been delayed while the organization we were
speaking to has pushed back its time table for a new
facility. The Housing Corp is still looking at other
possibilities.
Our Housing Corp members are: President: Russ
Hetrick (), VP: Carl Oros (), Treas: Brian Rickard
(), Sec: Andy Morris (), Asst Treas: Paul Hetrick (),
and At-Large Members: Les Wright (), Brian Millner
(), Cody Robertson (), Jason Frank (), Scott
Carlson (), and Tommy Moore ().

Membership in Sigma Pi lasts a lifetime!

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Kentucky Thoroughbred Alumni Club Newsletter

2014 - 2015

Adytum On High:

Sam Lakey () won the KPLR Tools for Teachers

award for creating B.R.O.S. (Boys Running Onward to

Darrell David Dunn ()

Terry Edmonson - Honorary

Success) at Point Elementary School in Missouri.

Tex Shellhart () is the Purchasing Supervisor for a

Updates:

division of Newell Rubbermaid.

Gordon Germain () is an attorney in Monitcello, KY.

Paul McDonald () is retired from the IRS and is now
CFO of the McDonald Family Foundation.
Dr. Forrest Bayer () is Director of Packaging,
Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for Coca-Cola.
Ken Thomasson () is a Security Officer at Hancock
Bank and Trust in Madisonville, KY.
John Crawford () is a reitred teacher and coach.
Robert Armbruster () drag races in western
Tennessee and Kentucky.
Mark Taake () is a farmer in Cape Girardeau, MO.
Michael Bugg () is a farm service agent in Hickman
County, KY.
Gerry Puckett () owns a mortgage origination
company in Murray.
Scott Wells is an engineer in Brentwood, TN.
Cam Williams () works in radio production in
Memphis, TN.
Greg Sexton () ran the Tough Mudder in Missouri
in October.
Brent Morgan () completed all 140.6 miles of the
Louisville Ironman in 13 hours, 43 minutes.
Don Dechow () is a real estate agent with Keller
Williams Realty in Leesburg, VA.
Justin Reiter () is now the Executive Director at the
American Frontier Culture Foundation.
Dr. Richard Elmore () is now a Senior Lecturer at
Florida International University.
Scott Miller () and Chris Ainsworth () both ran
the Indianapolis Marathon in November.
James Lockwood () ran for the St. Paul, MN city

Russ Johnson () is now a Continuous

Improvement Manager with Saputo Dairy Foods.
David Weatherly () is a teacher at Henry County
(TN) High School.
Bo Brooks () daughter, Katie, signed a letter of
intent to play soccer for Murray State.
Eric Lombard () works for Florida Family
Insurance.
Brian Pierce () is a Battalion Operations Officer
for the US Army in South Korea.
James Eason () is an attorney in St. Louis, MO.
Matthew Michaud () works for the Jefferson Co.
(KY) Farm Bureau.
Mark Mallory () is a teacher at Graves County (KY)
High School.
Dr. Jay Morgan () has resigned from the position
of being Murray State's Provost. He will be
Kentucky's Council on Post-Secondary Education
(CPE) Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Brothers Who Work Together:

Dr. Rick Hudson () and Dr. Brian McAdams ()
work together at Spaulding University.
Wyatt Alverson (FA), Dr. Jay Morgan (), Mark
Johnson (), Brian Rickard (), and Shelly Baskin
() work for Murray State University.
Dr. Scott Hooper () and Charles Buntyn () work
for the Jefferson County (KY) school system.
Michael Handegan (), Richard Kadner (),
Vernon Hamby (), JT Hearn (), and Brad Boykin
() work at Briggs & Stratton.

council.
Hunter Wallace () is a Parole Officer in Murray.

Membership in Sigma Pi lasts a lifetime!

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Kentucky Thoroughbred Alumni Club Newsletter

2014 - 2015

Rush:

History Committee

Do you know a young man who will be attending

Murray State this fall? Sam Sonnier is the chapters Rush
Chairman for this coming fall. If you know a Murray
State student that would make a good brother please
contact Sam at ssonnier@murraystate.edu.

Keep In Touch:

You can keep in touch with Sigma Pi several different

ways:
Facebook: We have a brothers only group named
Sigma Pi (Gamma Upsilon) and a public fanpage
named Sigma Pi Fraternity at Murray State
University.
LinkedIn: We have a brothers only group named
Sigma Pi Gamma Upsilon Murray State
Twitter: The undergraduate chapter has a twitter
account named SigmaPi1968.
Scribd: Find all of our newsletters at
www.scribd.com\GammaUpsilon
YahooGroups: We keep a brothers only e-mailing list in
this group. If you would like to join please e-mail the
alumni club at SigmaPiAlumni@hotmail.com. All
messages are fully moderated so there is little chance of
spam getting through.
Website: There is the beginnings of a website that we
hope to expand upon at www.sigmapi1968.com.

At the last alumni club meeting at the 2014 Summer

Reunion it was decided to form a History Committee
with the purpose of writing a document about our
chapter. Current members are Joe Allen Mattingly ()
and David B. Gray (). If you would like to join the
committee please e-mail the alumni club at
SigmaPiAlumni@hotmail.com.
Please feel free to contact us if you remember important
facts about our history. Other information we would like
to have are brothers who were leaders of other groups
on campus, brothers who participated in MSU sports, or
the chapters winning of events. We would also like to
know of brothers who had positions in Sigma Pis
international organization and brothers who have done
extraordinary things after graduation. Photos are also
appreciated.

Legacy!
Over the years Gamma Upsilon has had quite a few
biological brothers and cousins who have been brothers.
In the Fall of 2013 we had our first (that we know of) son
pledge. Pictured below is Christian Stout () with his
father James Stout ().

Brothers having a Kentucky Derby party at Keeneland

were: Brian Milner (), James Atherton (), Chad
Fletcher (), Jon Rhodes (), Jess Thompson (), and
Jeremy Bailey ().

Nashville Three brothers got together to watch the

OVC Tournament in Nashville: Wa Phoutharansy (),
Scott Harris (), and Colin Kelly ().

Membership in Sigma Pi lasts a lifetime!

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Kentucky Thoroughbred Alumni Club Newsletter

2014 - 2015

Active Chapter News:

Josh Johnston and Aaron Rowland competed in the 2014
Mr. MSU competition. This coming fall Tyler Pippin and
Michael Mann are among the sixteen finalists for the
contest.
Michael Mann ran for President of the Student
Government Association this year. He has also been
selected to be a Murray State University Student
Ambassador and an agriculture ambassador for MSU's
Hutson School of Agriculture.
The chapter has competed in All Campus Sing for the
last three years. FallFest was won by AOPi this year. For
the Active's ACE Project, they held a Barbeque dinner for
the police in Murray. During the bad weather at the
start of the semester, they shoveled snow off driveways
for a couple of sororities and nursing homes.

Joshua Johnson was presented the MSU Outstanding

Fraternity Chapter President award while the actives
were presented the Outstanding Brotherhood award this
spring.

Kappa Delta sorority held a paintball tournament during

the fall semester in which around forty teams
participated. Three teams from Sigma Pi were in the
competition and they took first, second, and fourth
places.
On campus during the spring semester, there were 3,494
male undergraduates, of which 509 (15%) were members
of fraternities. Independent GPA was 2.82 while
fraternity GPA was 2.86. Sigma Pi as a whole was fourth
place among fraternities for best GPA at 2.83. Our three
pledges of the Delta Lambda pledge class had a GPA of
3.45 which put them in second place on campus.

Fall 2014 Graduates: Dakota Fields, Evan

McPeak, James Andrew Urquhart

Chapter sizes on campus were: 110, 92,

76, 61, 49, 41, 31,
23, 16, 4, 3, 3. These
numbers include pledges from the spring semester as
well as those who graduated this spring. We had seven
graduates.
Something we forgot to mention in previous newsletters,
in 2013 Josh Johnston was elected to be the President of
the Inter-Fraternity Council. We think this was the first
time a Sigma Pi held this position at Murray State. Tyler
Pippin was also elected to be IFCs Vice President of
Internal Affairs at the same time.

Spring 15 Graduates: Chase Collomp, Josh

Johnston, Matt Jones, Matt Komerous, Andy
Johnson, Not Pictured: Eric Hirsch and Kit
Sutton

Membership in Sigma Pi lasts a lifetime!

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