Lambda Chi Alpha was founded at Boston University by Warren A. Cole in 1909. The University of Michigan chapter, known as Sigma Zeta among Lambda Chis, became the eighth chapter of the fledgling fraternity on March 31, 1913.

Sigma originally occupied a house at 1511 Washtenaw Avenue, but this house no longer stands. The brothers of Sigma sold that house to buy the land at 1601 Washtenaw, and sold bonds to raise money to build a new house. Construction at 1601 Washtenaw was completed in 1927.

During World War II, Sigma loaned the chapter house to the Red Cross. Throughout that time, many Sigmen lived in an apartment on State Street.

Lambda Chi Alpha has had some particularly prosperous times in its history. As a hundred-plus-man chapter in the 1950s, Sigma dominated many interfraternity competitions and intramural games. In the years 1976 and 1979, Sigma Zeta received the Grand High Alpha Award, which recognizes chapters that maintain superior operations for three consecutive years.

The 1990s were a difficult period for Sigma; the chapter was closed in 1994, and Sigma would not return to the University of Michigan until 1998. Sigma’s charter was reinstated in 2002, and in 2004 the Sigmen returned to 1601 Washtenaw.

Sigma boasts several distinguished alumni. George Pomey was the starting center for the U of M men’s basketball team in 1965, the year U of M placed second in the nation. Clifford W. Taylor, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 2005 to 2009, is a Sigman. George Spasyk, who served as Lambda Chi Alpha’s Executive Director from 1968 to 1990, is one of our most loyal alumni.

Sigma Zeta has traditionally been a singing chapter. In fact, when the house at 1601 Washtenaw was built in 1926 the room now known as the George W. Spasyk Chapter Room was called the Music Room and in one corner was a baby grand piano. Following World War II, the piano was to be found in the “Big Living Room” at the north end of the first floor.

For decades thereafter, members would frequently be seen gathered around the piano before and after dinner running through their extensive repertoire of songs, which included just about all of the Lambda Chi and Michigan songs ever written, most sorority sweetheart songs, many other fraternity songs (or parodies thereof), all of the Big Ten and Notre Dame fight songs (and dirty parodies thereof), and a host of party songs, some appropriate in mixed company, most appropriate only for stag parties.

One of the highlights of the year was the fierce competition among fraternities known as IFC Sing, held every spring. Tryouts were held during the year and the finalists, about ten fraternities, competed in Hill Auditorium before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 4,000. For most of his long tenure as Director of the Michigan Men’s Glee Club, Dr. Phillip Duey served as the Master of Ceremonies, and his voice is heard announcing most of the performances presented here.

Sigma’s finest period of singing supremacy occurred during the mid-50s to early 60s, when over a span of six years, we placed third, second, and an unprecedented run of four first place finishes! This didn’t “just happen.” It took weeks of rehearsals, each voice part perfecting its part before all four were brought together in 4-part harmony. The beauty of it all was that very few of the brothers could read music—it was all done by memorizing the parts. Even those who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket wanted to be on stage to represent Lambda Chi Alpha. They were put in the back row and silently mouthed the words, but their very presence and enthusiasm inspired the singers, perhaps to a higher level of performance. At the conclusion of the 1962 performance (Student Prince Medley), Dr. Duey told this writer that the Sigma Chorus could give his Glee Club a run for its money.

Each IFC Sing performance was recorded by a professional firm in Ann Arbor, using the latest state-of-the-art equipment and technology available at the time. These recordings were made available to the groups in the form of 33-1/3 rpm 10″ vinyl records. The five performances presented here were combined on a single record and given out as a souvenir at our 50th Anniversary banquet in 1963. Later, when “tape” replaced “record,” cassette tapes of these performances were given out as souvenirs at our 75th Anniversary banquet in 1988.

For digitally transferring the performances from the 20-year-old cassette tape to compact disc and to the format you will listen to here, we are indebted to the fine work of Brother Nate Whetsell ’05. Nate was High Alpha of Sigma when the charter was restored in 2002.

Download everything in a ZIP file (54 MB), or listen to individual songs. If you’re having trouble listening to the songs, you may need to install an MP3 player like iTunes.

Year	Selection	Performance	Director	Sponsor	Finish
1955	Mah Lindy Lou	Announcement Mah Lindy Lou Score	Fred Walker ’57	Alpha Epsilon Phi	1st place
1958	Paris Medley	Announcement Paris Medley Score	Bill Schepers ’60	Gamma Phi Beta	2nd place
1959	Carousel Medley	Announcement Carousel Medley Score Encore	Bill Schepers ’60	Delta Gamma	1st place
1961	Wonderful Women	Announcement Wonderful Women Score Encore	John Emmert ’63	Alpha Phi	1st place
1962	Student Prince Medley	Announcement Student Prince Medley Score Encore	Bruce Galbraith ’62	Alpha Phi	1st place

The Sigman, the University of Michigan Chapter’s semiannual newsletter, won Alumni Publication awards from the Lambda Chi Alpha General Fraternity in the years 1953–60, 1963, and 2009. Download issues of the The Sigman going back to 1932 in a ZIP file (128 MB), or browse through individual issues. If you’re having trouble viewing individual issues, you may need to install a PDF viewer like Adobe Reader.

September 2012	February 2012	July 2011
November 2010	July 2010	December 2009
February 2009	September 2008	February 2008
October 2007	February 2007	July 2006
January 2006	May 2005	January 2005
April 2004	May 2003	March 2002
March 2001	May 1999	November 1998
March 1994	September 1993	May 1993
May 1992	November 1991	July 1991
March 1990	July 1984	July 1981
November 1980	July 1980	October 1979
May 1979	May 1977	March 1977
November 1976	June 1976	December 1975
March 1974	March 1971	January 1969
January 1968	April 1965	March 1963
March 1962	November 1961	May 1961
December 1959	April 1959	December 1958
April 1955	January 1955	April 1954
January 1954	November 1951	March 1951
December 1947	November 1947	December 1946
September 1945	April 1944	February 1942
December 1941	January 1941	November 1940
March 1940	December 1939	October 1939
December 1936	February 1936	November 1935
April 1932

Past High Alphas

Zeta No.	Name	Term
Σ 4	Leland F. Reynolds	Sept. 1913 – Oct. 1913
Σ 6	Ray B. Watters	Oct. 1913 – Feb. 1914
Σ 13	Lewis W. Edison	Feb. 1914 – Nov. 1914
Σ 6	Ray B. Watters	Nov. 1914 – May 1915
Σ 19	Frederick L. Stevenson	May 1915 – Jan. 1916
Σ 16	Frank L. Blood	1916 – 1917
Σ 53	Earl C. Payne	1917 – 1918
Σ 76	William G. Lush	1918 – 1919
Σ 95	Curtis E. Bottum	1919 – 1920
Σ 83	John M. Sessions	1920 – 1921
Σ 102	Charles M. Spaulding	1921 – 1922
Σ 108	Gordon C. Harris	1922 – 1923
Σ 143	Frank M. Edwards	1923 – 1924
Σ 147	Clifford C. Pratt	1924 – 1925
Σ 163	Paul C. Willett	Jan. 1925 – Feb. 1925
Σ 151	John H. Button	1925 – 1926
Σ 169	Robert M. Van Duzer, Jr.	1926 – 1927
Σ 189	Frederick G. Metz	1927 – 1928
Σ 203	R. Sterling Cole	1928 – 1929
Σ 223	Nando F. Haase	1929 – 1930
Σ 202	Bruce Schwarze	1930 – 1931
Σ 226	David M. Nichol	1931 – 1932
Σ 260	William H. Mohrhoff	1932 – 1933
Σ 265	Robert K. McKenzie	1933 – 1934
Σ 274	Allen D. McCombs	1934 – 1935
ΓO 217	Douglas R. Stanley	1935 – 1936
Σ 292	Arthur A. Whiting, Jr.	1936 – 1937
Σ 301	Walter J. Truce, Jr.	Jan. 1937 – Sept. 1937
Σ 305	W. Jack MacLeod, Jr.	Sept. 1937 – March 1938
Σ 321	Morgan L. J. Gibbs	1938 – 1939
Σ 317	William D. Hope	1939 – 1940
Σ 350	Vincent J. Gottschalk	1940 – 1941
Σ 356	John W. MacMillan	1941 – 1942
Σ 355	Herbert J. Howerth, Jr.	Feb. 1942 – Sept. 1942
Σ 487	Robert J. Patton	Sept. 1942 – Feb. 1943
Σ 354	Joe M. Gwinn III	Feb. 1943 – Sept. 1943
Σ 491	James H. Wekel	Sept. 1943 – March 1944
Σ 493	Allen A. Raymond	March 1944 – Sept. 1944
Σ 504	Donald S. Snider	Sept. 1944 – March 1945
Σ 511	James A. Richardson, Jr.	July 1945 – Sept. 1946
Ξ 475	Raymond T. Scott	Sept. 1946 – Feb. 1947
Σ 498	Warren L. Heller	Feb. 1947 – Sept. 1947
KΦ 312	Edward Law, Jr.	Sept. 1947 – Feb. 1948
Σ 527	Frank J. Pipp, Jr.	1948 – 1949
Σ 555	Emmett I. Smith, Jr.	1949 – 1950
Σ 578	Benton E. Gates, Jr.	1950 – 1951
Σ 629	Charles E. Cuson	1951 – 1952
Σ 647	Wilbur J. Markstrom	1952 – 1953
Σ 667	Richard E. Sonntag	1953 – 1954
Σ 657	Richard T. Good	1954 – 1955
Σ 719	Constantine J. Gianakaris	1955 – 1956
Σ 706	George A. Grove	1956 – 1957
Σ 736	Kerry E. Johnson	Jan. 1957 – Sept. 1957
Σ 726	Stanley M. Head	Sept. 1957 – Jan. 1958
Σ 768	R. Bruce Johnson	1958 – 1959
Σ 754	Harold G. Bay	1959 – 1960
Σ 812	David R. Carpenter	1960 – 1961
Σ 832	James R. Nette	1961 – 1962
Σ 863	Roderick K. Johnson	1962 – 1963
Σ 868	Frank A. Lude	1963 – 1964
Σ 900	Edward H. Petrick	1964 – 1965
Σ 955	Hugh R. Whiting	1965 – 1966
Σ 966	Ivars Zadvinskis	1966 – 1967
Σ 981	Timothy M. Stone	1967 – 1968
Σ 1026	Lawrence I. McKay III	1968 – 1969
Σ 1050	James E. Quackenbush	1969
Σ 1067	Frederick C. Matthaei III	1969 – 1970
Σ 1121	David E. Jarvis	1970 – 1971
Σ 1142	Gary S. Kreps	1971 – 1972
Σ 1156	Bruce L. Koepfgen	1972 – 1973
Σ 1173	Michael Bartholomew	1973 – 1974
Σ 1181	Wayne N. Leimbach	1974 – 1975
Σ 1200	Stephen S. Grimm	1975 – 1976
Σ 1240	Michael R. French	1976 – 1977
Σ 1287	Steven M. Scheidt	1977 – 1978
Σ 1312	Hugh D. Sullivan	1978 – 1979
Σ 1364	Douglas V. Van Dagens	1979 – 1980
Σ 1389	Robert G. Hiss	1980 – 1981
Σ 1421	Gregg F. Averill	1981 – 1982
Σ 1454	Phillip E. McCarthy, Jr.	1982 – 1983
Σ 1468	Frederick W. Bolander	1983 – 1984
Σ 1515	Eric A. Haab	1984 – 1985
Σ 1525	Patrick J. Kelley	1985 – 1986
Σ 1578	Michael C. Hefter	1986 – 1987
ΛΩ 364	John L. Fraser	1987 – 1988
Σ 1628	William E. Luberto	1988 – 1989
Σ 1660	Richard Maicki	1989 – 1990
Σ 1692	Patrick Tummonds	1990 – 1991
Σ 1711	Joseph Schultz	1992 – 1993
Σ 1724	David Miner	1992 – 1993
Σ 1750	David Wheeler	1993 – 1994
Σ 1771	Matthew Helber	1994 – 1995
Σ 1793	Farage Yusupov	1998 – 1999
Σ 1800	Daniel C. Thompson	1999 – 2000
Σ 1801	Gregory Wright	2000 – 2001
Σ 1812	Sachin R. Master	2001
Σ 1814	Jason W. Harris	2001
Σ 1819	Aaron J. Martinak	2001
Σ 1815	Nathan A. Whetsell	2001 – 2002
Σ 1818	Anthony R. Sassi	2002 – 2003
Σ 1829	Stephen Marin	2003 – 2005
Σ 1837	Mariano Lowenstern	2006
Σ 1839	Sean M. Ruwart	2007
Σ 1859	Anthony Budzinski	2008
Σ 1865	Brian Hicks	2009
Σ 1853	Gabe Johnson	2010
Σ 1885	Ben Clark	2011
Σ 1895	Davud Kucukarslan	2012