A R T S A N D C U LT U R E
ALPHA’S POET LAUREATES TO BE AN ALPHA MAN To be an Alpha man means more than just to wear a pin; It requires intrinsic qualities that are developed deep within. It calls for lasting Brotherhood, a word sometimes used in vain; It means an honest devotion, not anticipation of personal gain. Fraternity speaks of Brotherly Love, that’s something to achieve; It’s more than just a grip of hands, It’s an ideal to conceive. You’re proud to be an Alpha, and share Her praises won, But before you inflate yourself with pride, ask yourself, honestly, “How much have I done?” To realize the wealth of personal satisfaction from knowing you’ve given your all, To have helped Her cause unfalteringly, when you rally to Her call; To combine all these qualities, and root them deep within, The product would be an Alpha man, deserving of his pin. So take an honest inventory of your character within, And for every virtue you find missing, try and weave it in. For a man without these virtues isn’t worth a grain of sand. It’s plain to see, it’s more than just a pin, that makes an Alpha man. —Fred H. Woodruff
The story behind the poem To Be An Alpha Man By Gregory J.Sims and Gerry L. White FRED H. WOODRUFF has achieved iconic status in the House of Alpha through his literary masterpiece, To Be An Alpha Man. Despite the success of that poem and its impact on our lives, many brothers around the world barely recognize him when we walks in the room. That’s because he is a humble brother who continues to live up to the aims and ideals of Alpha every day. Woodruff was initiated at Eta Chapter in 1955 at the metropolitan New York college chapter, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at the City College of New York. The poem was written in 1955, while he was still a college brother. It was published in The Sphinx in 1957, without his knowledge, after being submitted by an older brother who was one of his mentors. Here’s a bit of what he told Gregory Sims and Gerry White, of Eta Lambda Chapter in Atlanta, in 2007 about this historic and often-recited poem, when asked what inspired him to write it. “Actually, it was a negative inspiration. I was really talking about things that I had seen over the two years since my
initiation in 1955, and I wrote the poem in 1957. We had a term for brothers who would pledge, attend a couple meetings and then disappear. We called them pin wearers. Pin wearers were always a source of annoyance to me. When it came time to do a little work for Alpha and the chapter, these were the guys that you did not see. It used to work on me at times because when you are part of the 20 percent who does the work and not the other 80 percent, who kind of pull from the glory, that got me thinking about the writing this poem. I had a facility for rhyme. I used to write little pledge songs that we might sing. So, as I say, I was inspired to do this out of a concern for negative activity as I saw it. Most brothers liked the poem. The chapter and my fellow pledge-line brothers liked it. Initially there was no real sense of it being anything special. I think that happened over the years, because the brothers who knew me personally were used to me writing these kinds of things. It was only later, that it became a really big deal. I never knew it had been submitted for publication in The Sphinx. But thanks to Brother Oliver Gibson, it came out in May 1957 and surprised me by saying: ‘There it is!’
Spring-Summer 2011 H THE SPHINX
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