WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO WABASH?
The Big Question for this issue of WM asked for moments in our lives that “shook up” our world. Mine would certainly include my years at Wabash.
I always enjoy asking students and alumni what got them to Wabash. Was there a family history here, perhaps an inspiring teacher or coach in high school, a teammate or friend?
For me, the answer is simple: fourth-grade band.
In fourth grade we got to choose instruments we wanted to play. I rotated through percussion and brass, never having the embouchure for woodwinds, and settled on the baritone. I stayed in band through junior high, where my wonderful band director, Jack Barber (whose son John is Wabash ’94), told me about Smith Walbridge Band Camp, then in Syracuse, Indiana. Lt. Col. Dale Harpham, 23rd director of the United States Marine Band, was a conductor there in the summers, and they attracted a lot of music students from Indiana University to lead the sectionals and be cabin leaders.
At Smith Walbridge I met Stephen Pavy ’81 and, the summer before my junior year of high school, Phil Seward ’82. Phil and I became close friends and stayed in touch throughout his senior year in high school and his first year at Wabash. He invited me to campus in the Fall of 1978 and the rest, as they say, is history. I was struck by the beauty of the campus. By its size. By the relationships between the students and the faculty. By the opportunities that lay in front of me. Wabash College would not have been on my radar of possibilities save for Phil’s invitation.
Even before my freshman year I learned what the brotherhood of Wabash men could mean for me. I was performing in a musical during my senior year in high school, and it ran through Wabash’s Honor Scholars weekend. I didn’t want to let my fellow cast members down, but I also needed to compete for a scholarship at Wabash. When he heard about this, one of Phil’s Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brothers, Ned Segelken ’81, generously offered to drive me home on the Friday night for the performance, then back to campus after it was over, so I could get some sleep in the car before the Saturday morning exams. It does, indeed, take a village. Or at least a future fraternity brother.
I was given an early bid at Lambda Chi by Rich Clark ’80, and my life changed forever when I came to campus in August 1979.
Never underestimate the power of a personal connection and a visit to campus!
While there are so many different paths my life could have taken, this path—Wabash to Miami University to IBM intern to the University of Texas to MCC and back to IBM full time in 1987—has been an amazing ride. It led to living in Austin, New York, Florida, London, Sydney, Boston, and back in Austin. It was catalyzed at Wabash.
It has been an honor to work with your alumni board. I can’t wait to see what Chapter Three holds. There are exciting possibilities ahead for all of us. Whatever shape those opportunities take, I know my closest friendships will be with fraternity brothers and Wabash brothers, old and new, for the rest of my life.
All thanks to fourth-grade band!
ROB SHOOK ’83
What brought you to Wabash? Send your story to WM at charless@wabash.edu