I will try to tell you what I remember of the North Pitzer Wildlife Society and Nu Alpha Phi’s doings with the Sigma Tau fraternity. I had dinner with Greg Von Gehr ‘75 a few nights ago, so that I have his recollections as well.

I seem to recall that the Phi Delts ran a Friday afternoon gathering in the Wash before we took it over, but I can’t be sure about that. In any case, before I joined NAP, David Kenagy ‘74, Jeffrey Backstrand ‘74, David Herbst ‘74, and Charles Grinstead ‘74 organized the NPWS at least on an intermittent basis.

I joined NAP in the Spring of 1974, and Friday afternoons in the Wash were a regular event though not well attended. Since Dave Kenagy had a truck for transporting beer, he was one of the primary leaders that Spring.

Brother Steve Smith ‘76 joined at the same time that I did, and his account of what happened during the Fall of 1974 and after is basically correct, but incomplete. Mention should be made of Doug Cochrane ‘76 and Bill Sornstein ‘76, for they also did a lot of hard work in putting the Friday afternoon keg on each week.

Greg Von Gehr and Bill Thullen commissioned Jim Secord ‘75 (who was not a member of NAP--he had to be bribed with an offer of free beer in perpetuity) to create an art poster for the North Pitzer Wildlife Society. It was a very good job--it looked like what the creators of the movie Yellow Submarine would have done if they had been asked to draw a picture of the animals being led into Noah’s Ark. Somewhere I have a copy of it.

Dave Guichard ‘75 and Dan Bassignana ‘75 (whom I hope will forgive me for misspelling his name) were involved in this too. We mad Dan our treasurer because he was a math major. Only later did we learn that he didn’t know how to write checks and that he balanced books by writing checks until they bounced.

The war with Sigma Tau was more interesting while it lasted. Undoubtedly others have better memories of this than I, but here is what I know:

1. For reasons that I have never determined (but probably because he wanted to cause trouble), Steve Smith stole the ST’s "Ass Blaster"--an extra large paddle that they used for some arcane purpose.

2. A few days later, Greg Von Gehr and I were shooting pool in the NAP room, when we noticed that all of our paddles were missing. This was particularly embarrassing to be because I lived on the floor above the room and had not heard anything. We reported the theft and went to dinner. After dinner, Steve was called to Walker Desk by one of the other R.A.s. While he was away from his room, persons unknown left the paddles in his room and called Campus Security. When Steve returned, he had to explain to two officers what the stolen paddles were doing in his room. We vowed revenge.

3. During finals week, we executed the first part of our plan on a Saturday night. Dave Guichard and Mark Ambord ‘75 took the NAP ball and chain (left over from the Camel Walk?) and put it on Mary Schnich in one of the upper floors of Seeley Mudd Library. (Mary was apparently the R.A. who had lured Steve Smith from his room). Since Mary didn’t weigh very much more than the ball and chain, she had to ask a couple of friends to help her get out of the library and have the lock cut off. The sight of minute Mary struggling out of the library wearing an iron ball and chain left the otherwise staid library in quite an uproar.

4. Later the same night, a group of us liberated a wheelbarrow from the Botany Department and put the Sigma Tau rock in it. The rock usually rested near Bridges Auditorium. After some deliberation and a lot of effort, we left the rock on the doorstep of President David Alexander’s house. After a while President Alexander decided that the rock wasn’t becoming to his front porch, so he got the Kappa Deltas to move it to the door of the Sigma Tau room.

5. Over the next few weeks, we purchased two carloads of concrete blocks and some cement. This was stashed in the yard of Jeff Backstrand’s (he was living in Claremont). One night we met at midnight and divided into two teams. Our two Phi Beta Kappa students, Dave Guichard and Dan Bassignana, were skilled labor, so we directed them to remove the toilet from the ST room and put the rock in its place. Meanwhile, the rest ferried blocks and cement from their hiding place.

We built a cement block wall in front of the door to the ST room, almost to the ceiling, and used the toilet to make the area look like a men’s bathroom, complete with other accessories. At least one picture of this later appeared in Student Life.

6. Steve stole the Ass Blaster again. This time, to make its recovery more difficult, he mailed it to a couple of STs who were studying at Colby College in Maine.

6. Steve stole the Ass Blaster again. This time, to make its recovery more difficult, he mailed it to a couple of STs who were studying at Colby College in Maine.

And with that, my tale ends.

If I were a playwright instead of an economist, I would have found a way to tell the story with much more flair and many fewer words. But this is what I remember of it.


Other contributors:

Jeff Backstrand '74 #752
Steve Smith '76 #778
Co-Kegmeisters Jon Kott '80 #814 and Mart Pearson '80 #829