Editor's Back Page

First, I would like to thank all of the editors of the Oak Leaf who have come before me. When I was an active, we received copies of the Oak Leaf regularly. Much of what I read (and yes, I really read them) was uninteresting and seemed very distant from my life at that time. Somehow, though, those letters, features, and pleas for donations moved me and stuck with me. They gave me some indication of the power that Pomona College in general, and NAP especially, might continue to have on me once I walked out of those gates on College Way.

I had the good fortune to live close enough to Pomona for quite some time after I graduated. I suppose I must confess that I actually lived on campus in my then girlfriend's dorm in Norton Clark the entire year after I graduated ... so I mean really close. During that and subsequent years, I was able to and did spend a lot of my time on campus. As everyone I knew graduated or took jobs elsewhere, however, my visits grew less and less frequent, and finally stopped. Because of that proximity and those visits, I have never really missed Pomona. The Pomona College I went to is gone, and I know it. I got to watch its transformation into a new, slightly strange place. You see, what made Pomona Pomona to me was the people and they are gone.

Nu Alpha Phi, on the other hand, has changed its character only very, very slowly. While we've been recently reminded how quickly the active roster turns over, and suffered recent losses of maggots (or rabbits) in the lowest range of the rolls, our fraternity is largely the same. Yes, we are spread far and wide across the country and around the world, but we remain tightly bound to one another. One indication and certainly one of the reasons this is so, is the ongoing publication of the Oak Leaf. Without it, I fear we would be lost.

Chris Hall has mentioned that the Oak Leaf has been continuously published for over sixty years. I am proud (and maybe a little nervous) to be part of that tradition. So, again, I thank all of the editors who have come before me. I hope I can live up to the high standards you have set. The second thanks I'd like to offer is to senior editor, Chris Hall. Despite the fact that he not-so-secretly thinks he's put one over on me by getting me to volunteer for this gig, I really appreciate the opportunity and the privilege to do what I do under his guidance. While I may someday be able to manage the production and editing aspects of the Oak Leaf on my own, I will never be able to muster his enthusiasm for nor master his growing knowledge of fraternity history. I dearly hope that I can shield Chris from the drudgery of production for a long, long time to maximize the length of time he'll be willing to ferret out stories, seek out information from the actives, and guide the publication of this newsletter so that the respect for Nu Alpha Phi's past, present, and future shows.

Finally, I want to thank Tori Beyer '89. She was my girlfriend during my first year out of College (well, out of class anyway). Now she's my major sweetie, life-partner, and squeeze-thing. One of the things I have to thank her for is her editing and proofreading assistance. Chris and I back each other up, but until we coordinate our technology a little better, there's no way we can read each and every draft of everything. Tori has graciously read most of this issue (probably three or four times) and provided her input. Mostly, however, I have to thank her for putting up with me (actually the absence of me) during the production of the Oak Leaf. And I'm not really referring to this issue ... my periodic insanity while pushing hard to get an issue out the door to the printer will undoubtedly stretch into the future.

How far into the future, I can't really say. All I know for sure, is that I'm going to enjoy the ride much more than I'm going to hate it. I hope you feel the same.

'Til next time,

- Paul Nagai '88 #978