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Tradition by Chris Hall '82 #870
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I recall reading in the Oak Leaf of my college years how Zib would show up on editor Doug Buckmaster's
front porch in South Pasadena when an issue was due and cajole him to whip up something to paste on the
front of the issue that Zib had already assembled. And so the tradition continues with my co-editor Paul
Nagai and me. He does all the heavy lifting, and then sets about harassing me for my last-minute remarks.
Of course, Zib and Doug managed to produce several editions per year. Paul and I have been so stymied by
one circumstance after another that our production has again been dismally low this year (see Paul's comments for the some of the reasons; he got married, so at least he has an excuse). [Yeah, but Chris became
a father, so I figure we're even. -Paul]
Despite all this, I am happy to tell you that this is an especially fine issue, and worth the wait. First, our oldest and most distinguished Maggot (Rabbit, to you), Bob Dozier '23 #3 writes of the practices and lore associated with early NAP initiations. While many of the traditions will be foreign to younger brothers (and all of our sisters), you'll agree the spirit that animated those events is the same that inspired your own. Pomona College bestowed its Distinguished Alumni Award for 1996 upon Bob and his late wife, Fanny. We present a transcript of his acceptance remarks for those who missed the ceremony. Clearsighted as always, Bob gently and amusingly recounts how his freshman class strove to secure the right to carry canes, and other now-forgotten traditions that meant much to them then. And of course, our foremost encomiast Zib Zabriskie pays tribute to the late Fanny Dozier, "The Sweetheart of Nu Alpha Phi," and her early contributions to the nascent fraternity. Alongside such evocations of NAP tradition, we offer a remarkable first-hand account of perhaps the most wrenching period of internal strife in fraternity history, the admission of women in 1977, penned by that maggot-provocateur herself, first woman Gina Maranto '77 #807. Gina relies on her personal experience and a cache of unpublished letters from the Nappie Archives to tell the compelling story of an unwitting pioneer and the events surrounding the fall of the gender barrier. She unflinchingly incorporates the vehemence of those who opposed the decision to admit her twenty years ago. Despite the satisfying, nationwide renown her status as the first distaff maggot has won her, Gina has gone on to become a respected, Miami-based science writer whose recent book The Quest for Perfection: the Drive to Breed Better Human Beings, was published last summer by Scribner. You will also find herein exciting information about the Nu Alpha Phi/Oak Leaf web site. It is fitting that in the 75th anniversary of the fraternity and the construction of the cabin we embark on a new and uncharted journey along the infinite pathways of the Internet. It has been especially gratifying, while assembling the site, to note how many of the alums who have contacted us through e-mail graduated prior to 1960-apparently as Nu Alphs get older, they get wiser. - Chris Hall '82 #870 |
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