Brothers,
If you haven’t heard the news, the Chi Phi Fraternity lost a hero on Sunday, November 2nd. Brother Carl Gladfelter, previous Grand Alpha and National Director, passed away at the age of 102. Many of you have fond memories of Brother Gladfelter, as I know I do too.
Brother Gladfelter’s family asked that, for those inclined to show support for Carl, to make a contributions toward a display that is being made in his honor in the Greek Life Museum. Here is a link if you are inclined to give: http://goo.gl/0o2G9F
In addition to a monetary contribution, or in place of for those of you unable to make one, I challenge you to honor brother Gladfelter, by doing one more thing. The Chi Phi National office is asking people to share their memories of Brother Gladfelter in the comments section of their article which can be found here: http://chiphi.co/carl , but I challenge you to do one more thing. Take a moment and remember Carl in your own way, whether that be privately or publicly, but after that, I challenge you to do one more thing. Think about how Carl lived his life; what he believed to be just; how he chose to lead the fraternity in a manner that placed the vision and mission before the self. When you’re done with this, do one more thing. Act as Carl would for a day, open one more door, give one more moment of yourself to a worthy cause, live the ritual of our fraternity in your actions, think about the oath you took at your initiation when you’re faced with a decision that has both an easy path and a right path. When you’ve done all of that, I challenge you to do one more thing, because Brother Gladfelter never stopped doing one more thing.
He joined Chi Phi in 1926 and never stopped doing one more thing. Just last year Brother Kyllan Purdon and I met with Carl at the spritely age of 102, and we spoke with him about his work and his vision for Chi Phi. He didn’t push forward in hopes of fame or to feed his vanity, he didn’t even act simply to help the fraternity. Carl worked tirelessly to progress the idea of Chi Phi, that it would someday become the premier avenue for young men to become honorable men, for the enthusiastic to become leaders and for the wondering to find a home.
If every last one of us did one more thing to advance Brother Gladfelter’s vision for Chi Phi, then I feel confident in saying that Carl’s vision would become a reality.
Fraternally,
David Ebner
DZAA-President