ONE GREAT YEAR AS PHI SIG NATIONAL FIELD REPRESENTATIVE
It began in Chicago at the National Convention I attended with Dewey Ewing or was it Mike Clift?
Memories scramble past 70 it seems.
Barbara McIntosh a student at Keuka College on the Finger Lakes in upstate NY had been chosen as Moonlight Girl at Cornell and was then selected as the National Moonlight Girl -
That Summer she spent in London working for Garfinkle Brooks - since her father Herb was the VP in charge of the 42nd Street Brooks Brothers in Manhattan. During that time she broke up with her boyfriend from Cornell and so came to the convention sans an escort. Being a new Field Secretary who was unattached I became the lucky guy selected as her escort.
The first night after her arrival and the introductory dinner, we agreed to go out on Rush Street to the best clubs in the loop. After dancing and a few cocktails we returned to my room at the Sheraton Blackstone and she never left. Even with her mother in the room upstairs it was after dawn when she finally had to go to where here suitcases and clothes were.
I was as shocked as Mike or Dewey - I had fallen in love at first sight with this beautiful woman I had never seen until that day and for the next 2 years we were difficult to separate.
David Lepchitz from Xi Deuteron, and Bob Carter from Southern Illinois joined me as the three new National officers - David drew the North and East, Bob the Midwest and South and I got the West Coast.
My first stop was the University of California at Berkeley where in 1967 the huge house was filled with a membership of 120 - but Fall of 69 there were 12 brothers left and only a dozen guys came through rush. In the wake of the Free Speech Movement the entire Greek system at Berkeley collapsed.
The Second stop at Stanford was entirely different - but still amazingly odd. The Stanford chapter had split in half - 1) side the drinker Conservatives vs 2) side the Liberal anti-war Heads - they held separate meetings - had different officers and generally could not stand each other.
Weeks one and two and I was dropped into the epicenter of a change that would sweep across the country and strengthen as opposition to the war grew.
My next stop brought me to UCSB (Santa Barbara) - not yet as extreme as Stanford or Berkeley but on the way - then on to UC Davis and UC Fullerton - where things were much more "normal". By November I had been to Arizona State Tempe, Arizona Tucson, Univ Nevada Reno, New Mexico in Albuquerque, and on to Washington - Seattle - all pretty "normal" Then I spent 2 weeks opening a new chapter with the Jesuits as Gonzaga - quite Conservative with a side trip to Pullman WSU.
Once every 3 weeks I save up enough $$ to purchase an airplane ticket for Barbara to join me on the West Coast. It was the first time in PSK history a Field Rep came with the National Sweetheart
