Undergrad Awards Presented at Pig Dinner

Five undergraduate awards were presented at Pig Dinner on April 9th  by Corresponding Secretary Austin Burress.

•        Irma Fowlkes Award - Most Gentlemanly Freshman - Clay Hillyard
•        Most outstanding Freshman - Colton Lee
•         Athlete of the Year - Drew Shapiro
•         Richard S. Hutchinson Award - Outstanding Junior - Taylor Thomas
•         Willaim W. Kreiss Memorial Award - Outstanding Brother - Daane Blocksma

2011 Pig Dinner

Pig Dinner for Kappa Tau and the Knoxville Alumni Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta was held on April 9th at Cherokee Country Club.  It was billed as the most exciting and entertaining event ever.  If you were there, you more than likely agreed it lived up to its billing. 

It was a wonderfully pleasant Spring day in Knoxville TN with tempearatures around 80, a warm breeze and fellowship to abound.  Brother Charles Swan of Knoxville, class of 47, held the honors of leading in the brothers to dinner.

Brother Foster Arnett, class of 78, who is Knoxville's County Court Clerk, held court as Master of Ceremonies.  Foster set the tone for the evening's program which was "Phi Gamma Delta; Alive and Well and on the Move".  Brian Douglas, class of 98 from Tennessee Tech, was the keynote speaker.  Brian was recently elected as an Archon for the fraternity.  Brian's talk provided insights into the long term strategy by International to substantially expand and grow.  It was clear to all that International is also Alive and Well and on the Move.

The program for the evening was supported by two large 51 inch TV screens.  Terrell Kerr, class of 71, led the brothers in singing and as always there were a number of awards that were given out (see supporting post).  All in all it was a delightful night and one that the undergraduate and graduate brothers are committed to repeating in years to come.

Steve Carr Receives 3 Outstanding Contribution Awards

Brian Douglas, Steve Carr, Matt Carr

As anyone associated with Kappa Tau in recent years knows, the one brother who's name comes up the most associated with the renovations to the house and the brother review process from last year is brother Steve Carr.  The enormous contributions that Steve has made to the fraternity was recognized this week in the form of three awards. 

First, Brian Douglas, who is an Archon and was the keynote speaker at Pig Dinner this year, presented Steve with an Outstanding Alum Award at the dinner.  This award is voted on by the Board of Directors of Phi Gamma Delta and is given to brothers who make substantial contributions to the fraternity over several year.

Also at Pig Dinner, the undergraduate chapter started a new award.  The award is voted on and given by the undergraduates to the alumni brother who has made the greatest contributions to the undergraduate chapter.  It is fitting that the first recipient of this award went to Steve Carr.

Lastly, on Sunday night following Pig Dinner, Steve was presented an award for the Outstanding Greek Advisor at an annual dinner put on by IFC.  It is clear that Steve's relentless pursuit of raising money to refurbish the house along with his other duties as Housing Corp President did not go unnoticed by the fraternity council at UT.

Brothers, if you have not already done so, please take a moment to send a well deserved thank you to brother Steve Carr.  His email is e.steve.carr@gmail.com.  He has certainly been a major factor why Kappa Tau of Phi Gamma Delta is alive and well and on the move.

Tommy Wolf Named Outstanding Alum

Brian Douglas, Steve Carr, Matt Carr and Tommy Wolf

At Pig Dinner this weekend, Tommy Wolf, class of 03 and Purple Legionnaire, received the Calvin Walter Award for outstanding alum.  Tommy took over duties as Purple Legionnaire last summer and has helped guide the chapter thru some really difficult times.  Tommy's easy going nature coupled with a fierce dedication to doing what is best for the chapter has made him highly effective in bringing results to Kappa Tau.  Congradulations on a job well done.

House Renovations About Done

Living Room

Attendees at Pig Dinner this week were treated to pictures of the latest updates on the renovations at the house.  Within the last couple of weeks, new carpet and furniture went into the main living room making topping off other room by room additions over the last year. The place look truly spectacular for the first time in many many years. 

Steve Carr, Housing Corp President, and the main man behind the scenes to raise the money for the remodeling efforts is saying the end of the project is now in sight.  "All we lack is about $10,000 to buy drapes and we will be done", Steve says.

There have been numerous contributions by brothers along the way.  We have had major financial donors as well as small donors.  We have also had brothers like Dick Coffey, class of 78 and Bill Emmendorfer, class of 73, who have contributed both financially as well as their time and expertise to remodeling efforts. If you are able to help out with the final efforts to complete the house renovations, please contact Steve.

To all of you who have supported the efforts to make the Kappa Tau house look like a first class place again, many many thanks.  I can tell you with 100% certainty the undergrads are no longer ashamed to take a date and hang out at the fraternity house anymore.



Game Room





















Kitchen



Study Room





Dining Room



Card Deck



A Beautiful Spring Day on Campus

Kappa Tau On The Move

For the 2nd Semester in a row, Kappa Tau had the highest GPA average for any fraternity on campus. 

The brothers have been collecting letters, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, snacks, etc., to send to a platoon of marines in Afghanistan. So far, they have collected over $300 worth of items.

For Valentines Day, many brothers delivered over 100 cupcakes to various people in Knoxville, each representing a donation that was made to sponsor a low-income worker without health insurance to have the opportunity to visit the doctor free of charge. 
Lastly Kappa Tau won the championship trophy for the first time in nine years at the 31st Annual SAE Boxing Tournament (pictured). Out of the seven who participated, four brothers made it to the championship, two won their weight class, and one was awarded "Fight of the Night."

John Holden - Mayor of Dyersburg

The current Kappa Tau database shows 21 brothers living in Dyersburg.  One of them happens to be the mayor.  John Holden (83) is currently serving his second four year term as mayor of Dyersburg after initially being elected in 2006. 

John graduated from Dyersburg High School in 1978.  He took business at UT and graduated in 1983.  Government service must have been in John's blood and in 1994 he was elected to the Dyer County Legislative Body where he served in various positions before being elected mayor in 06. 

As a Phi Gam at UT, John was well known as King Holden.  Tony Sharber (83) recalls that John was highly admired by members of the opposite sex and often referred to him as King.  Well, John is certainly King of Dyersburg these days.

John is married to Amy who is a middle school teacher in Dyersburg.  The couple have two children.  Good luck John and just remember, Governor Haslam only has 8 years left in Nashville.

Pig Dinner - April 9th

Pig Dinner in Knoxville this year will be at the beautiful Cherokee Country Club overlooking the Tennessee River.  The grand patio is an ideal spot to light up the stogies, sip on a cool one and fellowship with old friends.  It can't get any better than this.

This year's event is special. Very special.  From the chapter almost being shut down a year ago, we are now gathering this year to celebrate a remarkable comeback.  Phi Gamma Delta at UT and Phi Gamma Delta Internationally are on the move and our program has been put together to highligh our recent accomplishments as well as hear about where the fraternity is heading.

Brian Douglas is our guest speaker.  Brian is a 98 graduate from Tennessee Tech and was elected an Archon last summer.  Brian will be speaking on the growth initiatives that are underway by the fraternity and to give an overall report on how Phi Gamma Delta is doing.

Pig Dinner 2011 will be a traditional Pig Dinner.  For those of you who have been somewhat disillusioned by some of the dinners in recent years, rest assured our old Pig Dinner is back. Alums have been involved in every aspect of planning and oversight of the event.

If you are planning on attending and have not sent in your RSVP, please do so now.  We need your RSVP.  Send your check made out to Phi Gamma Delta Kappa Tau to Phi Gamma Delta 1836 Fraternity Park Dr, Knoxville, 37916. The cost is $50.  For more information contact Austin Burress cburres3@utk.edu.

The Marines Are Landing

Brothers, I am pleased to announce that 3 of Kappa Tau's finest have joined the marines.  This may be the most brothers that have every entered the marines at one time.  Our military always needs good leadership and the overall quality of the Corp will certainly be going up with these three new additions.  All 3 are going to Officer Candidate School. 

Wil Southerland (11) from Memphis who is the current president of the chapter will be going in as a pilot.

Frank Crocker (11) from Jackson TN will be going in as part of ground contract (ground forces).

Daane Blocksma (11) from Knoxville will be going in as a JAG Officer.

Congratulations brothers and keep us safe.

Josh Holly - Serving Our Nation and Phi Gamma Delta

Josh Holly was a Kappa Tau brother from the class of 97.  After leaving UT he began his professional career in one of those most prestigious jobs a young man can hope for, a Phi Gamma Delta field secretary.  But the excitement of big time government employment came calling and Josh landed a job with the National Republican Congressional Committee in 1999 as Director of News Analysis.  From there were other Press related jobs including a stint with Lamar Alexander for Senate campaign in 2002.

In 2005 Josh became a staff member and Republican spokesman for the U.S. House of Representatives.  He has remained in that position but his duties now include being on the U.S. Armed Services Committee. 

Josh's public relations skills is also going to good use for Phi Gamma Delta.  He was appointed the Public Relations Director by the Archons and regularly assists the fraternity with critical issues facing both International and local chapters.  At Fiji Academy last month Josh led a class for chapter presidents on the need for building good public relations for local chapters.

Josh lives in the DC area and is married to Kelly Bulliner Holly.  They have one child.

VACO - A Growing Company with a Kappa Tau Connection

In 2002 two Kappa Tau alum brothers, Brian Waller and Jay Holloman, teamed up with a third partner, Jerry Bostelman, to open up a recruiting and placement services company in Nashville called Vaco.  Since then, the company has grown rapidly and now has 1000+ employee consultants and over 25 offices around the country.  Inc Magazine has named them one of the fastest growing companies in the US each of the last four years.

The Kappa Tau and Phi Gamma Delta association has non ended with just the two founding partners.  Other brothers have joined the company and today Kappa Tau brothers Kevin Witt (92), Jeff Ramsey (94), Eric Hardesty (98), Brandon Guy (96),  Matt Simpson (96), and Ryan Thompson (96) work out of the Nashville office.  Joe Fracchia  (96) works out of the Memphis office and Bob Hanley (96) works out of the Orlando office.  Here in Knoxville we have Michael Laraia (03)  who is a Florida State graduate. 

So what exactly does Vaco do?  The company does both permanent job placement and contract or project placement in a number of fields such as financial, information technology and management. If you have a need for employment opportunities or you are looking for professional staffing, please give a brother at Vaco a call.

Their website is vaco.com

Monthly Knoxville Happenings

The Knoxville Alumni Chapter has two monthly events.  These events are open to all Phi Gamma Delta graduate brothers and undergraduates, both Kappa Taus and non Kappa Taus.

On the 2nd Tuesday of each month we have a luncheon at Naples Restaurant in Bearden.  The lunch starts at noon and is over at 1.  At 12:30 we have a short report on what's going on in the Phi Gam world then a guest speaker comes on for about 20 minutes.

On the last Tuesday of the month we hold an after work social gathering at a local restaurant.  Currently we are meeting at Aubrey's in Bearden.  Several wives show up each month and a number of the brothers stay and have dinner.  In the future we plan to try out a number of different establishments.

Tommy Wolf - Kappa Tau Purple Legionnaire

Tommy Wolf

Last Summer, Tommy Wolf (Kappa Tau 03) took over as Purple Legionnaire for the Kappa Tau Chapter.  Tommy has been doing an excellent job meeting with the undergraduates on a weekly basis and has been getting the cabinet to institute clearly defined objectives for the coming year.  The Purple Legionnaire role for a chapter is the most important alum job there is and Tommy certainly deserves a tremdendous amount of recognition for the great work he is doing with the chapter. 

Tommy lives in Knoxville and is a project manager for Joseph Construction Company.  His dad Todd is the CFO for Shoffner Mechanical in Knoxville and was a Kappa Tau, class of 83.  Tommy is married to Lisa Hearnsberger and they are expecting their first child in the Spring.

Renovations to the House

Over the last 3 years, the Kappa Tau house was totally refurbished.  The building that is.  This was the biggest renovation since the house was build in the mid 60s.  While the appearance of the house has not changed, the improvements have been enormous and the Kappa Tau hut once again is looking really good.

But the work is not over.  Last year, Steve Carr (Kappa Tau 73) has been raising money for interior furniture.  Steve has made great progress and a number of things have been added.  However, we still need furniture for the main living room and office.  Steve has been attempting to raise an additional $25,000 to complete the work.  If you can make a donation to the chapter, it would be greatly appreciated.  The donation can be made to the The University of Tennessee with a designation it is for Phi Gamma Delta renovations.  The donation is tax deductible if you do it thru UT.

For more information contact Steve Carr at Steve Carr e.steve.carr@gmail.com

High Tech Communicatons

Kappa Tau and the Knoxville Alumni Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta has been going high tech in order to keep in touch with brothers.  More and more we are relying on electronic communications but we have not totally abondended mail;  yet.

In an effort to update our alumni database last fall, we spent a considerable amount of time researching what was the best way to keep up with brothers and how to best communicate with them.  What we concluded was that for keeping track of guys, Facebook had the largest representation.  Around 600 of our 1700 brothers have a Facebook account.  If you use Facebook and we need to track you down beacuse your address has changed, we can almost always do it thru Facebook.


To communicate with brothers we are employing a wide range of tools.

• We have a Kappa Tau Facebook page where we post current information
• We have a Knoxville Alumni Chapter blog (which you are reading now)
• We have started a LinkedIn Group called Phi Gamma Delta - Kappa Tau Chapter
• We have a Kappa Tau website
• We send email reminders to local brothers about monthly events
• We have begun a bi-monthly electronic newsletter to brothers with emails
• The undergrads send out a mailout newsletter in the Spring and Fall
• We will be sending email reminders out about Pig Dinner
• There will be electronic event invitations

Please help us out.  Please keep your contact info up to date.  You can do this by sending any changes to massey6932@comcast.net.  When we get changes they are forward on to International. 

If you are on Facebook and you have not joined our Kappa Tau Fiji page, please do so.  I would also ask that you consider friending me on Facebook if we are not already friends.  We have been able to easily contact brothers thru Facebook to get updated info when we learn our information is out of date.  My Facebook contact info is facebook.com/MortMassey

Pig Dinner April 9th

Brian Douglas

Big things are in store for this year's Pig Dinner.  The date is April 9th and we are returning to Cherokee Country Club.  Our speaker this year will be Brian Douglas (Tennessee Tech 98).  Brian was elected as an Archon last August and was our former Section Chief.  Phi Gamma Delta is doing extremely well internationally and we wanted Brian to come in and tell us about how the fraternity is growing as well as report on some of the issues it is facing.

We have also decided to promote reunions.  I am not sure if we ever really had class reunions, but international is really pushing this to be a part of our Pig Dinner weekends.  This year's class reunions will be 50/51, 61, 76, 86, 91, 96, 01 and 06.  We have found brothes who are heading up the renuion efforts for all of the classes but 61, 96 and 01.  If you are interested in helping out with your reunion please let me know at massey6932@comcast.net.

The theme for this year's Pig Dinner is going to be a Return to Tradition.  Over the last few years it seems that much of the tradition we were use to just faded away.  Terrell Kerr (Kappa Tau 71) has agreed to be the program coordinator this year and will making sure our songs and rituals will be included.

Recently elected Knoxville County Clerk Foster Arnett (Kappa Tau 78) will be our Master of Ceremonies.  There will be a golf outing on Saturday if you are interested in playing.

Please plan on joining us April 9th at Cherokee.  You will be receiving invitations in February.  This year we will be requiring RSVPs and payment in advance.  We will be setting up payment via PayPal or you can just send us a check.

Alum Chapter to Become Knoxville Alumni Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta

Phi Gamma Delta International is underway with a multi year objective of expanding the number of Phi Gam chapters.  This effort is not just undergraduate chapters but also graduate chapters.  Over the last 6 years or so, the number of graduate chapters has almost doubled and International's hopes to double it again.

The Knoxville alum group has historically been made up almost entirely of Kappa Tau graduates.  We are in a movement to change that.  While there are some 300 brothers in the area that went to UT, there are also around 180 Phi Gam brothers who live in the area who attended other universities.  To better describe who we are, we are renaming our group to the Knoxville Alumni Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta.

We have begun a program to reach out to our non Kappa Tau brothers and invite them to participate with us.  We are using mailings, emailings and direct solicitations to contact these brothers and let them know about our local chapter.

If you would like to assist in the effort, please let me know at massey6932@comcast.net.

Tom Bell - Politician, Businessman, Civic Leader

Who would have predicted that Tom Bell (Kappa Tau 1972) would aspire to such great heights while hanging out at the Phi Gamma Delta house in the early 1970s.  But Tom was already well on his way before leaving UT.  A couple of his first jobs was working for senators Howard Baker and Bill Brock.  He went on to work for Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign, Lamar Alexander’s successful Tennessee gubernatorial bid, Dan Quayle’s first run for the Senate, and Ronald Reagan’s challenge of President Gerald Ford for the presidential nomination in 1976.

From there, Tom’s career trajectory veered into the business world. He was executive vice president of Ball Corp. in Muncie, Indiana, for two years, then returned to Washington to work for marketing giant Young & Rubicam Inc., eventually becoming CEO of the public affairs unit, Burson-Marsteller. He left for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. but was lured back to Young & Rubicam by Peter Georgescu, whom he succeeded as CEO of the international firm.

Eventually, Tom was asked to be the CEO of Cousins Properties in Atlanta.  In 2009, he stepped down from Cousins and became an investor and chairman of SecurAmerica, a national commercial security firm. He is also is chairman of Goddard Investment Group, a real estate partnership.  In June of 2010, Tom was elected as the chairman of board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 


Tom lives in Atlanta.