DEKE NEWS
Terry Miller, left
Terry Miller Collects Navy Public Service Award
T
he Secretary of the U.S. Navy has awarded Terry Miller, Rho Lambda ’69, with the Navy Meritorious Public Service Award, honoring his dedicated service as Executive Director of the National Association of Destroyer Veterans from 2002 through 2021. The honor was presented to Brother Miller by Rear Admiral Samuel Cox (USN Ret.), Director of Naval History at a brief ceremony in June in Somerset, Mass., during a board meeting of the Tin Can Sailors. Brother Miller has been president of the 12,000-member association of navy destroyer veterans since 2022. The citation noted Brother Miller’s success in supporting the U.S. Navy through challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. It also lauded Miller’s guidance of the association’s extensive library, artifact collection, and social media efforts that educate the public about the contribu-
tions of destroyers and those who served aboard them and helping garner vital support of the American people for the Navy.
Virginia Deke Develops App Now Used on 40 Campuses
O
ne day early in the fall 2021 semester, University of Virginia student David Roselle witnessed a mad scramble by his fraternity brothers to obtain enough wristband ID’s for an event DKE’s Eta chapter was hosting. The next morning, Brother Roselle saw scores of those wrist bands strewn throughout the house, a trashy scene that set the junior computer science student on a quest. “We spend money on these … they’re a total hassle to distribute … and they just end up thrown on the ground. There has to be a better way,” David said, describing the moment
to UVA Today magazine. Brother Roselle devised that better way; he developed a software platform that replaces wristbands and paper lists at private events with a dynamic QR Code that helps organizers better track authorized attendees. He and fellow Deke undergrad Peter Layne launched DoorList just six months later. “The app was more than just inspired by the wristbands at the DKE house. It was built in the DKE house and beta tested by Dekes. Peter was our social chair, and his perspectives and input helped refine the product we launched. For their work, the pair won UVA’s Entrepreneurship Discovery Cup last year and earned prize money to help grow their new company, of which Roselle is CEO and Layne is Head of Strategy. DoorList was named one of the ‘Most Disruptive Undergraduate Business School Startups’ of 2022 by business school magazine Poets &
Quants. Roselle, who graduated in May with a BA in Commerce and a BS in computer science, proudly notes that DoorList is faster at the door, less susceptible to fraudulent entry and is now used on over 40 college campuses. He’s particularly thrilled with the environmental pluses from having replaced more than 300,000 wristbands. DoorList has seen strong organic growth without the need for spending on media campaigns. “It has been rewarding to see the inherent virality of the app be the leading factor in its growth.” But David has tweaked the product, “constantly created new iterations” over the past 18 months, responding to customer feedback. And now, having just graduated, he’s excited to have more time to concentrate on improving the platform, freed up from juggling course work and a demanding athletic schedule (Roselle was a goalie for UVA’s Right,David Roselle; Left, Peter Layne
w w w.dke.org
5