Alumnus Spotlight - Ed Hawley '59
With 52 years now passed from the date I graduated, I got to reflecting on life in the chapter house during the late ’50s. Dan Logan ’57 bid me and then became my big brother. He too was a journalism major and he impressed me with his confident assertion that even a journalist could make $10,000 a year. I believe there were 17 of us in my 1955 pledge class, growing to 31 in the class of 1958. I think 1958 was the year we asked Loyal Rosendahl ’59, our talented song chairman, to take the summer off and direct the pledge drive. We bought him a 1950 Plymouth sedan and he drove about Washington visiting recent high school graduates. His hard work paid off. I also recall he lost the car’s title, but we sold it anyway.
We had no television set in those days. Even some- what puritanical about such matters. I was the house manager then and perhaps I was reluctant to see money spent on mere entertainment. Dunno. When I returned in the fall from my summer job at the Wallowa County Chieftain in Enterprise, Oregon, there was a set in the living room, said to be a rushing aid. Loyal told me to keep quiet as the set was borrowed from John Lang’s ’57 mother and would be returned after rush was over. This was a tiny set, black and white and surely beyond the comprehension of today’s brothers. We later did buy a 19-incher, but made sure it was off during study hours. Modern thinking is likely to be more flexible about such matters. IPads anyone?
Seems to me with Loyal we had lots of song practice after dinner and many late evening serenades in front of favored sororities. We had a secret weapon in the Eligibles, a quartet of brothers were very popular with the women. I only recall two names of the four: Ron Hicklin ’62 and Ron Rolla ’59. Humm. Yes, I think Don Custer ’57, the chapter president and later mayor of Renton, also sang with them. The answer to your unspoken question: yes, I think Don did once say he was related to you-know-who. Doubt if Don will meet a similar fate.
Somehow the cars of the ‘50s stick in my memory. Don’t know why, but...John Lang ’57, we called him the Bishop because he served as chaplain, once lent me his 1953 Buick convertible. Who could resist a yellow paint job, a spear sweep, and three portholes? I did not do the brotherly thing, however. I ran out of gas on University Avenue and left him to recover the car. He was nice about it and through the years remained a good friend. John was an Air Force veteran and something of a stickler for house rules. Someone remind me, but weren’t there pages and pages of them? What I recall is that John decided no one was paying any attention to them and in a public display of...pique, he tore them up. No one thought they needed to be reconstituted.
There was several veterans among us, some of whom served in Korea. They brought an added dimension of maturity to the chapter. They had the added advantage of—let me put it this way—the willingness to buy “refreshments.” They also brought heft to intramural sports. Well not that much maybe. Loyal, an Army veteran, broke his collar bone in a football game. Seemed to wear that cast forever.
It would be unseemly to mention the occasional water fight or the loud music we played during a work party. I am sure we kept the neighbors awake, and I am surprised we never had any complaints. We were aided in these exercises in sanitation by Gene Laughlin ’63 who hooked up two huge speakers that emitted sound loud enough to shake the snow off Mt. Rainier. And this too: call it men unbalanced. Our chapter advisers were looking for a loan from Washington Mutual for money to build an addition, which was in fact ready for the ‘58’-’59 term. There was a keg party the night before the bankers were to come and look the place over. Oh, oh. Beer was “spilled” pretty much everywhere. The place reeked. The bankers came, they saw, and they approved. Ok, that was because our ace-in-the-hole came through. He was founding brother John Metz ’23, the Washington Mutual banker who approved the loan, which was for either $10,000 or $20,000. Don’t recall which. But real money in those days.
And that is but one small window into the past.
