TRANSITIONS

Overcoming Financial and Cultural Adversity

with Grit, Strength and AGR

A man of grit and strength was Brother Danny Thomas of Pi Chapter. After his passing January 23, 2021, Brother Thomas’ family established a scholarship in his name in hopes of helping a collegiate member who is working a minimum of 20 hours a week to put themselves through school.

AS THE SON OF TWO DAIRY FARMERS

in 1934, Brother Thomas knew what it meant to work hard for what you had. He was born in Sweet Home, Arkansas, and was the first in his family to attend college. He started at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, but knew he wanted to study dairy science.

At the time, Oklahoma State University (OSU) was one of the top dairy science schools in the country and Brother Thomas had a cousin who lived there. He transferred in the spring of 1954 and joined Alpha Gamma Rho the same semester.

His first year at Oklahoma State was difficult for him, both academically and financially. Danny’s mother worked in a local school kitchen and drove a school bus to help put her son through college.

After his first year, Brother Thomas received a call inviting him back to OSU and AGR the next school year. He realized he would not be able to attend the next year because he couldn’t afford it. Brother Thomas went to the Pi Chapter Noble Ruler and told him he would not be returning to AGR or OSU because he could not pay for his room and board. The Noble Ruler thought about it and told Danny to come back next year and they would find a way for him to pay his fees.

The following school year, Brother Thomas worked in the Pi Chapter house kitchen doing dishes and helping out to pay for his dues for AGR. He also received help for his academic struggles as well.

“Fortunately, he had teachers there who would help him on Sunday nights,” Brother Thomas’ grandson, JR Thomas, said.

With a second chance at finishing his degree, Brother Thomas was able to continue as a member. The Housemother of Pi Chapter taught him, along with his brothers, how to act and dress properly, as well as how to dine in a formal setting, something that wasn’t taught to them growing up on rural farms.

After graduating with his degree, Brother Thomas tried to go back and work his family’s dairy farm, but in the 1950s and 1960s there was a transition to dairy parlors. Seeing the family farm wouldn’t last, Brother Thomas began working for Allied Chemicals as a salesman for cotton crop pesticides.

Eventually, Brother Thomas got married, but his wife’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and the treatments began to grow expensive. Danny moved to a new career in real estate.

At the company he was working for, he was the only person from the country working there.

“He was made fun of … because he was a country boy — not a country club boy,” JR Thomas said.

Despite the adversity, Brother Thomas stepped up to the challenge and became the biggest salesman of his group. He would eventually go on to create one of the largest real estate firms in Arkansas.

After he retired, Brother Thomas bought a family farm and raised cattle as, what JR Thomas described, a hobby.

Support the Danny Thomas Endowment Fund

When Brother Thomas passed, JR Thomas and his family decided to create the Danny Thomas Endowment Fund, which provides aid to a Pi Chapter member who is working to put himself through college. JR Thomas and his brother Dan have chipped into the fund, but must have $25,000 endowment. The family hopes their father’s AGR brothers will donate to this scholarship so the family and Brother Thomas may pay forward the kindness AGR showed him when he was a collegiate member. To support AGR undergraduates please consider making a donation to 10101 N Ambassador Dr., Kansas City, Missouri, 64153. All checks should be made out to The Educational Foundation of Alpha Gamma Rho and please put Danny Thomas Jr. Endowment Fund as the memo.

In Memory of Our Great Brothers

The following deaths were reported to the AGR Home Office between April 22, 2021 and September 3, 2021. The listing includes initiation year.

Arkansas

Henry Fuhrman, 1990 John Houston, II, 1956 Jon Standridge, USA (Ret.), 1957

Arkansas State

Dale Morris, 1973 Thomas Franzen, 1973 Bill Brooks, III, 1973 John Muir, 1992

Auburn

John Hawk, 1955 Neil Lowry, 1970

Austin Peay State Jack Caldwell, 1903

Colorado State

Jerry Butner, 1951 John Mulnix, DVM, 1958 Herbert Snow, 1960 J. L. Hooper, 1950 Don Freeman, USAF (Ret.), 1950 Donald Black, 1977

Connecticut

David Nielsen, 1973 Vic Galgowski, 1942 Alexander Mozzer, MD, 1931

Cornell

Charles Riley, 1936 Bruce Porter, 1959 Dan Reed, 1971

Florida

Charles Combs, Jr., 1977

Georgia

Jack Buchanan, Sr., 1947 Robert Bledsoe, 1966

Illinois

Ronald McClelland, 1963

Iowa State

Jim Albright, 1952 Russell Kerr, 1942

Kansas State

Gerald Goetsch, DVM, 1942 Steve Burgess, 1961 Bob Ames, 1964 H.L. Todd, 1957

Kentucky

Mahlon Wallace, 1965 Al Steele, 1966 Jerry Whitehouse, 1969 William Hedgecock, Jr., 1970 Ronald Johnston, 1958 Frank Schneider, 1956

Louisiana State

William Maddie, 1981 Mark Johnson, 1982 Michael Sullivan, 1983 George McCoy, 1940

Maryland

Vernon Foster, 1937 James Brownell, 1938 Lee Adkins, 1940 Jim Moxley, Jr., 1949 William Smith, 1958 Paul Baker, 1968

Massachusetts

Arthur Dodge, 1951 John McKinley, 1953 Philip Belanger, 1954

Michigan State

Donald Frayer, 1951 Jim Graham, 1951 James Gleason, 1955 Paul Young, Jr., 1957 Jack Sneller, 1959

Minnesota

James Wempner, 1946 Richard Runck, 1957 Casey Clark, 1976 Em Lyman, 1946

Missouri

William Davidson, 1946 Wayne Hilgedick, 1967

Montana State

Donald Rose, 1948

Nebraska

Ron Grapes, 1961 William Jameson, 1956

New Hampshire

Carl Warren, 1937 David Wright, 1998 Bill Hepler, Ph.D., 1952 Courtney Allen, 1947

New Mexico State

Willie Ashby, 1951

North Carolina State

John Barber, Sr., 1948 James Foster, 1952 Robert Whitaker, 1959

North Dakota State

Marlowe Jensen, 1950 Gary Puppe, 1961 Bill Harbeke, 1966 Myron Senechal, 1965

Ohio State

James Finney, 1940 Hugh Wilson, 1956 Larry Stephenson, 1956 Jack Fishburn, 1953

Oklahoma State

Ronald Coulter, 1958 William Miller, 1967 Pete Frans, 1960 Ronald Schultz, USAF, 1954

Oregon State

Thomas Pranger, 1961 Bryan Peters, 1988 Bill Dentel, 1950

Penn State

Franklin Campbell, 1946 Penny Hallowell, Sr., 1948 Dave Stabler, 1951 Bill Thomas, 1956 Douglas Moorhead, 1954 John Fague, VMD, 1942 Carl Blair, 1964

Purdue

Edward Moser, 1932 Russell Hardin, 1940 Thomas Rhoads, 1965 Harold Power, 1948

South Dakota State

Roger Muller, 1966 Jim Anderson, 1972

Southern Illinois Mike Brinning, 1985 Scott Chalmers, 1987

Tennessee-Knoxville

Richard Shadden, 1964 Charles Darnell, 1956 Bill Blazer, 1968 Robert Mauk, 1953

Tennessee-Martin

Larry Wade, 1963 Jim Cutlip, 1963

Wisconsin-Madison

John Mitchell, 1956 Duane Manthe, 1961 Jeff Hicken, 1917

Wisconsin-River Falls

Verl Verhulst, 1968 Gary Sackmann, 1968

Washington State

Eugene Forrester, 1947 Dick Johnson, 1968 Terry Brown, DVM, 1967 Tedd Nealey, 1967

West Virginia

George Ruth, 1949 Harold Ross, 1950 Glenn Musser, 1951 Michael Rubin, DVM, 1973 Michael Mertz, Jr., 1951

Western Illinois

Robert Dewey, 1974 Jeffrey Hartmann, 1979

Western Kentucky

Philip Amos, 1991 Ersley Amos, 1992 Daniel Givens, 1970 James Adams, 1966