Almost a dozen fraternities and sororities soon
followed. There were 17 by 1964 and more than a dozen owned houses—including the ones still lining Fifth Street. Greek Week was a major event. Sigma Nu brothers were leaders in student government, including Roddy Jones ’58 of Raleigh, a former chair of the ECU Board of Trustees. Sigma Nu and Lambda Chi usually took the lead on fundraising projects. When students wanted to create a summer theatre program in 1963, Sigma Nu sold the ads for a daylong live radio broadcast from its house, featuring guest appearances by President Leo Jenkins, football coach Clarence Stasavich, baseball coach Earl Smith A daylong live radio show broadcast from the Sigma Nu house at 411 West Fifth Street in 1964 raised money to launch the first season of the East Carolina Summer Theatre.
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and Dean of Men James Mallory. The event raised $850. Many successful business people came out of Sigma Nu, including Greenville insurance executive Charles White ’59, Phillip Morris executive Lyle Cooper ’59 of Richmond and longtime Greensboro mayor John Forbis ’63. Several swimmers on ECC’s 1957 and 1959 NAIA national championship teams were Sigma Nus, including six-time All-Americans Glen Dyer, Ken Midyette ’60, Jake Smith, Tommy Tucker and Jack McCann ’60. Seven of the 11 members of the ’59 squad were Sigma Nus. They won 11 of the 18 medals captured during the championship meet. Sigma Nus Butch Edwards and Steve Wilkerson also were All-American swimmers. Honoring that tradition, the Sigma Nu Snakes are raising money to fund a scholarship on the ECU swim and dive team, according to Maloney. He said Danny Wood ’63 of Franklin, Tenn., is leading the fundraising effort. —Steve Tuttle
Jerry McGee ’65 is the president of Wingate University, but for more than 20 years he also worked weekends as a back judge at college football games. He learned refereeing at ECU as a student paid to work intramural football games. He said the fraternities fielded the toughest teams. “If you can work the Sigma Nu–Pi Kappa Alpha game, then Notre Dame–Michigan is a walk in the park,” he once said.
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YEARS AGO
YEARS AGO
“Skyscraper dorm” opens
Leo Jenkins dies
The first building with elevators on campus opens in the spring of 1964 and is named for novelist Inglis Fletcher. She is famous for her Carolina Chronicles series of historical romance novels (Rogue’s Harbor, Men of Albemarle, Lusty Wind for Carolina). At seven stories, Fletcher Residence Hall is the tallest building in northeastern North Carolina and becomes known as the “skyscraper dorm.” It maintains that distinction only four years, until 10-story White Residence Hall opens beside it.
All photos courtesy University Archives
Sigma Nu and Lambda Chi were the first Greek chapters on campus. Lambda Chi, chartered as the Iota-Upsilon Zeta chapter, signed with national on May 2, 1959. Two weeks later, Kappa Sigma Nu was installed as the Eta Beta chapter. But Sigma Nu was the first Greek organization to own its house, a two-story frame on West Fifth Street.
Retired chancellor Leo Jenkins dies Saturday, Jan. 14, 1989, at age 75. The cause was cancer. A moment of silence is observed when the news is announced that evening at a Minges Coliseum basketball game. Jenkins served the school for 31 years and had been retired 11 years. Asked in 1986 about his greatest achievement, Jenkins said: “Some folks say it was the medical school, and others say it was obtaining university status, but I feel it was instilling a sense of pride in the people here in the East. People walk a little taller because of ECU, and they take a greater pride in themselves.”