Wilson Heller

[KEPike]

Here is some info on a PiKA that is quite interesting from another thread:




Please post this in Pi Kappa Alpha site, too....
WILSON BENTON HELLER was born in NE 1 Aug 1893. He died in LA 30 June 1983. Joined PiKA at U Mo about 1913. He served in WWI as a flyer and was an "ace." He was a press agent and erstwhile actor's agent in Hollywood. His hobby was
indeed fraternties, and all the other observations of him on this
site.,so far as I know, are quite accurate.
Wilson was disenchanted with Pike, then generally called PiKA or Pi Kap, and was impatient about growth. He was isolated from the "honor seekers and freeloaders (his words)" and held
most college deans and administrators in utter contempt.
He hated the old line fraternities, favored the newer ones, especially TKE and Sig Ep. Both Teke and Sig Ep were on the expansion trail, and this writer was a TKE field man from '57 t o '60. I met Wilson many, many times and fed him a lot of info, got
many letters from him, typed generally, single-spaced, margin-to-margin, on scraps of paper. I have kept a lot of those notes from him. And I have copies of most of this ratings. He did not
play fair, I thought, in total national strength ratings in the obtained a score, multiplied it by the number of chapters, and, voila! The larger outfits were always up there. There is few who
would doubt that SAE was best-run outfit in '50s, though. But no one would doubt that Heller loved the Greeks and his jabs were intended at goading them to improve their lot...
Wilson would rarely wear a white shirt. He preferred a logger-
type, perhaps a print, likely corduroy and a bow tie, not at all in
fashion.
Wilson could not be cajoled, bought, intimidated or harassed by
anyone. Favor seekers were generally rebuffed. He was going
to leave his stuff to the late George William Woolery, TKE, who
was sick and eventually died from complications of diabetes. He did not leave the things to George and I always wondered where they went.....thanks, informant! He was going to proivde
handily for Dick Hall (TKE)'s kids in his will but never did and his
widow, I am told, left it all to the LDS church. Heller was quite fond of Dick Hall, then TKE Executive Secretary. He thought that
Nelson George Burhans (TKE, Hartwick) was the smoothest, the most mannered, and polished fielder to ever become a knight of the road. Had little regard for the NIC or the Banta group. He sent out thousands of surveys to college campuses
all over the country, and was pretty accurate, whether we liked it
or not. Placed emphasis on size, and has never been successfully refuted (his words, too). WBH was unique....
Wilson would be very proud of Pi Kappa Alpha today, arguably the hottest ticket amongst the greeks at the moment.
I have some wonderful memories of Heller, and he said a lot of
nice things about that brash young Kansan who got results in
the '50s. Wilson, old pal, we need you today, we really do.
Erik P Conard, TKE, PhD, active again after many years away....


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Erik P Conard