Lorenz “Foam” Lueck ’21, who played the trumpet at every homecoming bonfire event. “We used to think that guy was so old,” Balej says, “and he was approaching his 30th reunion. We’re coming up to our 57th. So we are to the current incoming class what the class of 1892 was to us!” “I still think Ripon is the most wonderful school I could have chosen,” he says. “To this day, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.” r
Ron Balej gives a cheerful wave goodbye as he is left out in the snow to walk his way back to campus.
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lso during his first year, he went through what was called “Hell Week” for Alpha Omega Alpha (now Theta Chi). Pledges were taken out of town and dropped off in separate places, and they were expected to get back to campus by themselves. “I was in the middle of nowhere, it was snowing and it was darker than heck,” Balej says. “I had no idea where I was. I think it was somewhere between Ripon and Green Lake.” He started walking in the direction the dropoff car had taken, when just a few minutes later a car stopped. “It turned out to be a vet from World War II who was at the College,” Balej says. “He asked, ‘Do you need a lift back to the College? What are you doing out here?’ I think he knew.” The man offered to take Balej back to the fraternity, but Balej emphatically declined. “If you take me there, they’ll take me out again,” Balej told him. “Take me to Thorne Hall.” “I’m sure I was back in Ripon before the guys who dropped me off were.”
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evic graduated with Balej in 1953, and Sable dropped out in his sophomore year. Balej says that even more than 50 years later, his closest friends still are those he had at Ripon. Every October for the last 25 to 30 years, he joins a group of about 25 alumni for a private fraternity reunion. This year’s attendees included Peter Martin, Richard Hallock, Adolph Hansen, Art Wong, John Fuchs and Balej, all of the class of 1953 and who all stayed at Thorne Hall their first year; and Forrest “Woody” Moy ’56. They laugh, he says, because they recall an alumnus named
FIRST-YEAR SHARES EXCITEMENT Do you remember Move-In Day for new and returning students and their families? A video now affords a brief glimpse into this hectic — and sweaty! — process. View “Coming Home: Move-In Day 2010” at http://ow.ly/3m3s8. A featured student in the video, Chelsea Sorbo ’14 of Nekoosa, Wis., recalls some of what she was feeling on that day. “On moving-in day, I felt every emotion in the book,” Sorbo says. “I remember being anxious the whole morning. I was excited to move in and start meeting new people. I was looking forward to setting up my room just the way I want it. All at the same time, I was sad to be leaving my family. “As soon as I set foot on campus, I felt a new family forming. All the people were so welcoming, I already knew this was the start of a great chapter in my life. Everyone was buzzing around feeling all the same emotions I was. I knew before I could think twice we would all be closer than I could ever imagine. “One of the incidents that stands out most to me was Chelsea Sorbo ’14 setting up the two lofts in my room and moving them every way possible, then finally deciding to leave them how we had them the first time. “Another incident is having a line of about 15 people all carrying my things up the stairs to my dorm room and thinking it was never going to fit!”
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