| AGR’s CENTENNIAL HISTORY
By Gene L. Swackhamer  My first car was a lime green 1951 Plymouth with a lot of miles and a rusted out body, a radio and one rear view mirror. Any date that dropped a lipstick could kiss it goodbye. Some did. But, that is a different story. This story is about rear view mirrors! I have a Cadillac now (finally my father’s car) with three rear view mirrors and vanity mirrors, too. These mirrors are smart; they adjust light and correct for distance. I saw an eighteen-wheeler at a truck stop this week with more mirrors than I could count. It had mirrors within mirrors; one for vertical distance; a convex ones for looking around the rear quarter and one for looking down for the hidden little sports car when changing lanes. All these mirrors were an epiphany of sorts, as I realized that everyone needs to look back to see how to go forward successfully. History is a rear-view look; Alpha Gamma Rho’s Centennial History is a very special look back to learn insight into our fraternal character, the wisdom of our forefathers and what it will take in the second century to succeed. The published Centennial History of Alpha Gamma Rho is our rear-view mirror into what has made us unique and better men. At the December 6, 1924 installation of Alpha Beta Chapter at Oregon State, the banquet speaker, founder Rudo Lorenzo Fromme, said “This event needs a song,” and sing he did. He introduced the new brothers to several AGR songs. Said historian, Nathan Rice, “It will be remembered that the uncontrollable musical inclination of Brother Fromme once caused Beta Chapter to be ejected from their house and home by an irate landlord. That, however, is no reflection on his musical ability.” Tom Sutherland (Iowa State), a hostage of Islamic Jihad for 6 ½ years in Lebanon, much of the time chained to a wall like an animal, responded to the question about survival. He said many things contributed to survival—love of family, faith, good luck with health and keeping his mind active. “One thing I know for certain,” said Tom, “is that reading ran like a powerful thread through those years keeping me in the world, stimulated and going.” The written word—any word—was cherished. Maynard Coe expressed his view about being professional at AGR’s diamond anniversary as follows: “For 75 years the impact of Alpha Gamma Rho in upgrading the professional and ethical standards of agriculture has been immense. Looking back, it seems that our Founders must have been divinely inspired when they wrote into our purpose, ‘to build better men and through them a broader and better agriculture.’ Of course not all has been academics and professionalism in the first one-hundred years of our existence. There was a wedding of a brother in Wisconsin. His ever-loyal brothers assembled for the wedding watched as the bride and groom got into his decorated Volkswagen Bug for the honeymoon departure. A frameless rubber tire had been placed under each of the car’s tires, which looked harmless enough, until he tried to drive away. Try as he might he could not rock or power that Bug out of its entrapment. His amused brothers shouted encouragement and advice and waited. How long they might have waited nobody now knows, but for the groom, it was thirty frustrating minutes later before his brothers boosted the Bug out of its trap and on its way—another quality prank. “Sheepy” was a good AGR and he came by his nickname honestly. He was a junior national sheep-shearing champion and he breathed and lived sheep. He still does in Colorado. But, he had the detestable habit of leaving his boots and clothes in a pile in the middle of the room while taking a shower. Sometimes the boots and shoes remained there for a few days until the next sheep-shearing job. The smell was intense. One day having had more than he could accept, the roommate threw the clothes out the window, unlaced the shoes and drove a spike nail through the sole of each shoe flush into the floor. There was grumbling and threats but the shoes didn’t move. Only a crowbar would dislodge them! This is life in Alpha Gamma Rho. The bonds of brotherhood run deep as life experiences build trust and trust builds commitment and commitment means success. Looking back has its rewards. Sometimes the mirror is clear and sharp revealing important truths, but it can also be fuzzy and leave doubts. Several brothers have told me they are not into history, but not looking back is a disservice to the lives of our forefathers and a waste of the lessons of time.
|
