Graduate Brothers Share Their Favorite FIJI Memories

We love to hear about your favorite memories! These graduate brothers shared with us some of theirs, see what they had to say.

What is the memory that makes you laugh hardest today?

“Helping Dr. Crowder locate his car in Lafayette after a night on the town.” –Kenneth T. Milne, Jr., ’49

“Riding up the levee hill from Lafayette to West Lafayette with my date in the rumble seat of Dick Marshall’s red 1931 Model A roadster. The clutch went out; we slowed, and then started rolling backward down the hill. Dick expertly parked the car, and we walked our dates home, laughing all the way. At our 45th reunion, Dick reported that he had recently found that car again and bought it.” -Henry Parker Wayland, Jr., ’59

“In the fall of 1954 I had my first date with the president of the Pi Phi house (Jane Heath).  It was senior week and the Phi Gam pledges were after all of us seniors in an effort to put tape on our mustaches so that we would have to shave them off.  Some of the pledges spotted us at a beer joint in Lafayette and began a car chase as soon as we left.  I successfully eluded them by driving down the Monon railroad tracks.  Unfortunately women’s hours were 10 PM and the pledges were waiting for us when I returned to the Pi Phi house.  However all was not lost since my date was so impressed by my daringness that she said yes a few months later and we have been happily married ever since.” -Doug Stuart, ’55

Describe the best party.

“Fiji Island 1958! An island of sand throughout the basement, wall to wall mattresses covered with “grass” carpets on the first floor with freshly-cut greenery lining all the walls, the front porch lined and made into a pond to receive the waterfall from the second floor, a monkey bridge from a tree out front to enter the house via the center second floor window and a decorated low-boy from Bill Davis’s Dad’s construction company to drive throughout the town to pick up our dates. Purdue was officially a dry campus then, but we had a great time anyway.” – Henry Parker Wayland, Jr., ’59

What is the one memory you have shared or will share with your children or grandchildren?

“How I looked up to and respected the seniors (Class of 1956) with men like Joe Showalter, Gene Cernan, Phil Wolf, and all the others. They made me very proud to be a Phi Gam.” -Henry Parker Wayland, Jr., ’59

“I was able to attend initiation with my two sons who were Fijis at Kansas State and Iowa State. A wonderful experience.” -William G. Hanley, ’60

“My fraternity dinners are where I learned some manners and social processes and they should learn them before they go to college.” -Robert D. Dillingham, ’69