To the Brothers of ΑΣΦ Beta Omicron Chapter:

Homecoming 2024 Restarted Our Beta Omicron Tradition

Over 40 Brothers returned to the 2024 ΑΣΦ Homecoming, September 27th and 28th, which began Thursday night with a gathering of about 20 brothers and guests for dinner at Timbers Steakhouse and Seafood. Old friends reunited to reminisce and tell stories.

Active Brothers: Bowen Pickett, Brian Tippman, Brendan Keen, Shelby Altman

Friday some brothers played golf on the Trine Zollner Golf Course and others took the tour of the seemingly ever renewing campus. It was weird to see the old Summit St House fenced in with all the other brick 1960’s fraternities houses built by the school on what is now known as Thunder Drive and Summit Street, ready to be demolished to make room for a new dormitory. Also strange was walking in to Best Hall’s old large southern conference hall where Chemistry, Physics and Electrical Engineering was taught, and finding it turned into the third largest competitive electronic gaming center in the United States. It has banks of computers and rows of computer screens and work stations with gaming platforms. So…, were the students in this Center on Friday morning, taking a break, training for a Trine competitive gaming team, or taking a class😊?

Our first official Alpha Sig event was Friday afternoon with the Pre-Touchstone Dinner Reception at the Old Gal. This was a social that provided a chance to meet the undergrads and catch up with those ΑΣΦ alumni you went to school with or that you have met at past Homecomings.

About half left for the Trine Touchstone Dinner, which is a Trine hosted dinner celebrating the many accomplishments of the school and its alumni including Trine University’s 2024 National Championship in Basketball for NCAA Division III. ΑΣΦ Brothers Skip #665 (and wife Carol) Bryan and Mike #757 (and wife Michaelann) Galiyano were recognized for their lifetime financial contributions to the University. Additionally, Mike Galiyano’s employee, Bill Dixon, who graduated in 2017 was inducted into the Trine University Basketball Hall of Fame. We finished the night celebrating at the Old Gal.

To the delight of the Homecoming Committee the Old Gal was clean and ready for the Alumni meeting first thing Saturday morning. This follows the theme that seems to be a topic of discussion at this Homecoming. This group of U/G brothers are unique in their organization, reliability and togetherness. The Brotherhood has 17 brothers with 10 living in the house and 7 living out. The house would be full (15) if Trine would let us have more Sophomores move in. They have an exceptionally large “fall” pledge class of three and the two that could attend Homecoming were always there ready and eager to help in any way they could. The Brotherhood is hoping to have ten or more pledges this winter semester and most of them are sophomores. That means they will be Juniors in the fall and able to live in the House. Our Beta Omicron Chapter won the Bronze Cup given to the best small chapter at this summer’s ΑΣΦ national gathering.

Over the last year your Beta Omicron Alumni Association made a number of changes to improve our ability to serve the Brotherhood. Froggy (Mark) Stone #882 returned to the AA Board of Directors, Lenny Duff #975 became our President and Niko Barrantes #1185 became our BOD’s Member at Large. Mike Lynch (#887) our Treasurer and Froggy joined OddBall (Tom) Alspaugh #840 on the Homecoming Committee, along with Corey Herr #1092, Terry Riegel #779, Mel Budreau #902 and Niko Barrantes #1185. Phillip Grimes was our very active U/G member.

Rueg (Paul) Ruegamer #913 presented the status of our House Corporation. They expect to have a full house next fall. Mell Budreau and the U/G have been keeping the exterior of the house in good shape and decorated for the fall. A new upstairs refrigerator was installed the week of Homecoming and the House main floor and stairwells were painted recently. It looked to be in good shape. The House Corp. still has a comfortable reserve fund of $60,670. The brotherhood was reminded that our mortgage allows the bank to make a rate adjustment in February of 2026.

Corey Herr with his wife Macie, along with Blaine Bowman’s parents, Krista and Jim Bowman delivered a well-timed and orchestrated Tailgate at the Old Gal. Hamburgers, hot dogs and Brats with all the fixin’s were served up hot on the patio. Kudos to the chef and his crew.

Some of patrons stayed at the Old Gal, many went to the Trine Football game, some went to the Trine girl’s soccer game and about 10 went to Lake James for the pontoon boat cruise. The Thunder lost the football game and about 20 minutes into the lake cruise it started to rain. The cruise participants enjoyed the experience and the good company. Brother Mel Budreau was thanked profusely for going to the effort to set the cruise which make for a nice Homecoming event.

The Saturday night Homecoming Dinner at Club Paradise was attended by 54 brothers and 26 guests. The meal received good reviews. House Corporation President, Paul Ruegamer, presented two Wayne A. Champion Alumni Service Awards for outstanding work as a Beta Omicron Alumni. The first was given posthumously to Gene Tierney #850, past President of the Alumni Association and member of the Homecoming Committee. Puck (Jim) Braun #799 delivered the plaque to his wife, Mary Tierney right after dinner, and it drew a tear as he presented it to her. The Second Wayne A Champion Alumni Service Award was presented to Kyle Clark #1168 for his work as the Alumni Association President and ΑΣΦ Website webmaster from 2017 to 2021.

The Brotherhood gathered for the group picture below, then returned to the Old Gal to complete our Brotherhood celebration of the 2024 Homecoming Weekend. The Homecoming Team received high marks for their production of this year’s special ΑΣΦ weekend.

OddBall #840 (Tom Alpaugh)
Homecoming Chairman