TKE 60th Anniversary Celebration
Jake Weber ’25 (right) and Nathan Felix ’24 moderated a panel discussion on Friday, Sept. 4, 2022, inside Baxter Hall in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha at Wabash College. TKE alumni returned to campus to talk about those historic days.
The panel discussion was one of several events that TKE alumni and current students participated in over the weekend in celebration of the fraternity’s re-chartering anniversary.
Panelists (from left) Ken Schild ’66, Jerry Blossom ’66, Jack Haber ’66 and Roger Alig ’63 discussed the history of the fraternity’s re-chartering on campus.
In 1962, the Tekes returned to campus after an absence of a quarter century. Alig, one of the fraternity members who led re-chartering efforts, said the founders set out to be “a fraternity of difference,” and that they wanted to create a fraternity in the 1960s that welcomed all members without regard to race or other discriminatory factors. Until that point, no other fraternity at Wabash accepted Black students as brothers.
Jon Pactor ’71 hands out copies of his new book, “A History of Tau Kappa Epsilon at Wabash College” to alumni and friends attending the panel discussion. In his book, Pactor details how TKE became the first racially integrated fraternity on campus.
Ken Schild ’66 and Jerry Blossom ’66 reminisce on why they chose to join Tau Kappa Epsilon as Wabash students. “As an incoming freshman, some of the first Wabash people I met on campus were Tekes. In fact, some people from my hometown of Richmond, Indiana, like Fred Kraft ’64 and David Johnson ’63, were charter members,” Blossom said. “I was very wary of joining a fraternity, and wasn’t ready to join something right off the bat that I didn’t know more about. I met guys from virtually every fraternity, participated in different rush events and got to know the different fraternity personalities. The Tekes were very welcoming and never gave up on me. The rush process was very low key, and very friendly. We didn’t undergo hazing. Believe me, that played a big part in why I joined.”
Alig explained that the re-chartering of Alpha-Alpha at Wabash College began after his friend, Jesse Liscomb ’63, was denied membership into another fraternity on campus because he was Black. As a result, students from Martindale Hall got together and created a proposal for a new fraternity on campus that would “not have an exclusion clause, allowing all to join.”
Alpha-Alpha Chapter and its officers were formally installed by Tau Kappa Epsilon International Fraternity on May 19-20, 1962. “Nothing was in place — no housing, no food service, and no pledge policy,” panelists explained. In the early days after its re-chartering, TKE housing was divided. There was a main house on Crawford Street and an annex at Grant and Pike that was sometimes called “the Foster House.”
Pactor records the panel discussion celebrating TKE’s 60th anniversary. “Tau Kappa Epsilon had a philosophy encapsulated by its motto: ‘Not for wealth, rank or honor, but for personal worth and character.’ That is what the founders of Alpha-Alpha wanted, too. They succeeded,” Pactor wrote in the event program.
Panelists were asked, “How important is it for current students to continue that legacy of diversity as a fraternity, living up to what our charter founders fought for?” “I think it’s critical,” answered Jack Haber ’66. “You’re going to have to be the leaders of change. If you want to be a fraternity of difference, if you want to look, sound and feel different from every other fraternity on campus, you need to behave better than everyone else. You set the example.”
“What’s really remarkable if you think about it is that these folks started this in 1962. Six years later, the fraternity had over 70 members. In six years, TKE went from nothing to 72 members. It just shows you what historic momentum was created by the effort of these gentlemen,” Brad Johnson ’71 told the crowd inside Baxter Hall, thanking the panelists for what they did as students to help build the fraternity.
“In our earliest meetings as a colony, we agreed that the reason that we came together was to live together. We agreed that we could not be ‘the fraternity formed to fight segregation.’ We are not segregated, and many of us, this writer included, would never have chosen a segregated fraternity over Alpha Alpha TKE. But that is done. Our purpose is to live together. Living together means, of course, more than existing as a group. It means working together, accomplishing together, enjoying together.” John Dooley, Alpha-Alpha president, August 1962.
Associate Professor of Religion David Blix ’70 attends TKE's panel discussion.
“I selected TKE specifically because of the fraternity’s views on equality and human dignity,” said Jack Haber ’66, a math major and economics minor.
College Archivist Nolan Eller displayed Tau Kappa Epsilon artifacts, like this old photo, on a table outside of the Baxter Hall 101 ahead of the panel discussion for guests to view.
“I liked the unique concepts of nondiscrimination and no hazing. I also liked the challenge of the new organization that others gave no chance of surviving four years. The Teke approach was low key and friendly,” said Jerry Blossom ’66, who majored in zoology and minored in psychology.
Tau Kappa Epsilon students and alumni gathered on campus for a weekend-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha, and participated in a panel discussion, tours of the chapter house, a celebration banquet, and more.
Tau Kappa Epsilon students and alumni gathered on campus for a weekend-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha, and participated in a panel discussion, tours of the chapter house, a celebration banquet, and more.
Tau Kappa Epsilon students and alumni gathered on campus for a weekend-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha, and participated in a panel discussion, tours of the chapter house, a celebration banquet, and more.
Tau Kappa Epsilon students and alumni gathered on campus for a weekend-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha, and participated in a panel discussion, tours of the chapter house, a celebration banquet, and more.
Tau Kappa Epsilon students and alumni gathered on campus for a weekend-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha, and participated in a panel discussion, tours of the chapter house, a celebration banquet, and more.
Tau Kappa Epsilon students and alumni gathered on campus for a weekend-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha, and participated in a panel discussion, tours of the chapter house, a celebration banquet, and more.
Tau Kappa Epsilon students and alumni gathered on campus for a weekend-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of the re-charting of Alpha-Alpha, and participated in a panel discussion, tours of the chapter house, a celebration banquet, and more.
Tau Kappa Epsilon alumni who attended the celebration were from the Classes of 1963-2020 and came from states as far as California.