I To Life!

Fraternity. Forever

Harvey Miller, Al Halper, and Marty Abel,

Oscar Genser of Oak Park, Norman Steel of Southfield,

all of West Bloomfield

Hans Weinmann of West Bl000mfield

Staff photos by Angie Baan

Oscar Genser of Oak Park, Charles Kaye of Southfield,
and Louis Hoffman of Huntington Woods

Gamma Kappa "brothers" gather to
remember bygone days at Wayne.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

M

ost high school and
college classmates
hold reunions every
10 years or longer and rarely see
each other in between, either
because it's a hardship to get
together — or they simply don't
care to do so.
But the members of Gamma _
Kappa Chi, an old-time, all-
Jewish fraternity at Wayne (State)
University, bonded so strongly in
their college days that they just .
haven't been able to get enough
of each other since. They have
reunions almost every year; and
the local alumni meet for lunch
every week throughout the year,
either in Detroit-area restaurants
or Florida.
The Gammas, who always refer
to each other as "brothers," have
been holding dinner-dances, the-
ater parties or "stag" dinners off
and on since 1975, and started
meeting for weekly snacks at
Detroit's Lafayette Coney Island
in the 1950s before switching to
suburban restaurants.
A monthly e-mail newsletter
reads mostly like a script from
television's Grey's Anatomy,
keeping members up to date on
who's sick, who's recovering from
surgery and what members' "sur-
viving wives" are doing.
Because the fraternity ceased
to exist in 1958 on the Wayne
campus, most of the alumni are

36

August 10 • 2006

'retired and now range in age
from their late 60s to the 90s,
and they're worried there may
not be too many get-togethers
ahead. So, they're going all out
for Gamma's 70th anniversary
reunion over the weekend of Aug.
25-27, with a luncheon Sunday,
Aug. 27, at Glen Oaks Country
Club in Farmington Hills.
"It's shaping up to be an exciting
event; well have five hours to remi-
nisce with our brothers and the
surviving wives of other brothers:'
said Al Halper, who, with Harvey
Miller; both of West Bloomfield, has
been planning the event.
•
Halper, a retired Highland
Park school administrator who
plays in four over-age-70 softball
games a week — one team is
sponsored by a funeral home
= writes the GKC newsletter. He
and Miller, a retired furniture
sales rep, have been planning the
reunion for months.
About 150 Gamma alumni and
their guests — out of a base of
about 265 members worldwide
— are expected to attend. The
event will include a video made
from old home movies of fra-
ternity activities, a memorabilia
room with photos and clippings,
a memorial to deceased mem-
bers and entertainment. About
25 alumni are coming from out
of town. One who can't make it
is Berol Robinson, who has lived
in France for 35 years and is a
member of the French Nuclear
Commission.

it4

But the Sunday shindig isn't
enough for the "brothers." Martin
Abel of West Bloomfield, who
owns Cal-Therm, a national
engineering company that makes
thermostats and oil valves for
vehicles, is funding a free lun-
cheon/boat trip on the Detroit
River on Aug. 25. "I want kosher
food, so I hired Paul Kohn's
Quality Kosher Catering to dater
the lunch:' said Abel.

house" always was the highlight
of the fraternity's business meet-
ings at Wayne, where members
tried to "out-joke" each other.
"We are all at the luncheons
because we want to hang on to
something:' noted Max Garber, a
retired physician.
In its heyday in the 1940s-
1950s, GKC had the largest mem-
bership — close to 100 actives
— of any Wayne fraternity, and
was known as the frat of "jocks
Good Of The House
and docs," boasting a large mem-
GKC was founded in 1936, as
bership of athletes and medical
a local fraternity by seven.stu-
students. GKC annually domi-
dents, according to the frat's
nated intramural sports competi-
official history handwritten by
.tion on campus. Many Jewish
Maurice Sugar, a dentist, and
students bypassed two national
Sheldon Ellison, an engineer who Jewish fraternities, Alpha Epsilon
worked on the Apollo moon mis- Pi and Sigma Alpha Mu, to join
sion project, both now deceased.
GKC.
-
Norma Sugar of Farmington
"It was easy to make the
Hills, chairperson of the
choice," explained Max Fertel of
Surviving Wives Committee,
West Bloomfield, a retired Detroit
and "Perky" Ellison of West
teacher. "None of us had enough
Bloomfield are expected to
money to pay the high national
attend the reunion. One of the
dues, so we stuck with a local
few remaining founding mem-
fraternity." Added Leonard Cohen
bers, Irving Boigon of Oak Park,
of West Bloomfield, a retired
also plans to attend."He's on
physician, "There was no doubt
dialysis and he recently had a leg about it; the local dues won us
amputated, but he says he'll be
over."
there said Halper.
GKC members are proud to
Hans Weinmann of West
have been pioneers on many
Bloomfield, a retired GM engi-
fronts during that period.
neer, presides at the weekly lunch
"It wasn't well known at the
meetings. Each session ends
time, but fraternities and sorori-
with "good of the house allow-
ties were restricted to one reli-
ing everyone attending to give a
gion," Miller recalled. "We were
speech, tell a joke or even sing a
the first frat to break the barrier
song if he wishes. "Good of the
and go interdenominational:'

Pledging GKC was Ben Paolucci,
a Wayne varsity football player,
who later spent a season with
the Detroit Lions. He now is the
Detroit Pistons' team doctor.
When the nation began
observing Brotherhood Week
in the 1940s, the Gammas
introduced the celebration at
Wayne by inviting a little-known
African-American singer, Nat
"King" Cole, to speak and sing.
Sol Weller of New York, one of
the founding members, worked
on the Manhattan Project that
developed the atomic bomb.
Gerson Konikow of New Jersey
was the first student to receive
a music degree at Wayne, in the
late 1930s.
One year, the GKC members
painted an orphanage in Detroit.
At the outbreak of World War II,
most of the fraternity's member-
ship quit school to join the mili-
tary, returning to graduate in the
late 1940s.
In 1958, the Gamma Kappa Chi
chapter merged with Tau Epsilon
Pi, a new, mostly Jewish national
fraternity on campus. ❑

The "brothers" of Gamma
Kappa Chi fraternity will hold
their 70th reunion from noon
to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at
Glen Oaks Country Club in
Farmington Hills. Cost: $70
per person. For information,
call Al Halper, (248) 682-
4986.

