[PhiPsiRuss]

June 21, 2004


Dear Brothers,

I enjoyed a very special Father's Day yesterday in which after having a family breakfast with my parents, wife and children we spent the afternoon in Pasadena, California shopping and sightseeing. Later in the evening, I placed a call to Brother J. Duncan Campbell, Pennsylvania '34 Gettysburg College to wish him a special Phi Psi Father's Day whose son and grandson are Phi Psi legacies at Cornell University and who together attended the Sesquicentennial Grand Arch Council in 2002.. Brother Campbell's wife Margaret had recently passed away this past March and for purposes of our Sesquicentennial Edition of our future forthcoming History Book , I had wanted to interview him for historical inclusion as he was one of the two living authors along with Brother Harry Gorgas of the preceding ''Centennial '' issue published fifty-two years ago.

We had a wonderful and insightful conversation in which I had a hard time ''keeping up'' with Brother Campbell and a marvelous memory, as he recited by the month and year particular facts of Phi Psi interest including the background of the project undertaking of the Centennial History Book. It had been just a few years earlier as an undergrade that he had been asked by Fraternity Secretary Dab Williams to undertake a Phi Psi history research project at Virginia Alpha and Virginia Beta that precluded him being asked to help co- author the Centennial History of Phi Kappa Psi.

In our exchange I had asked him for a few quotes in which he made mention of his own Phi Psi undergraduate experience at Gettysburg College in the 1930's in which he shared the salient testimonial '' Where else than in Phi Kappa Psi could a motherless seventeen year old learn to become a man'' ''It was in Phi Psi that my philosophies and all my values in life were formed'' .....

We talked about the direction of the fraternity movement today and Brother Campbell made the noted point '' Our greatest critics of the concept of ''fraternity'' are made by those who know the least about us''.......''Every father wants what is best for his children.....Why in fact are there so many Phi Psi legacies today including sons, grandsons, nephews if the purpose wasn't important, as the valuable Phi Psi experience has demonstrated repeadetly to help build men.''

Brother Campbell made mention that at eighty-eight years of age he has just finished in collaboration with fellow Phi Psi Mike J. O'Donnell a new book to be released later this summer "American Military Headgear and Insignia" that followed a release ten years ago by the same authors ''American Military Beltplates''.

My conversation with Brother Campbell was the perfect way to finish a great Father's Day in which I look forward to submitting this interview to Brother Collinsworth in the planned completion of our Sesquicentennial History Book.

Fraternally,
John V.Ciccarelli...
S.W.G.P.