Byron P. Connell ‘63: I can’t think what my life would have been like without Alpha Chi Rho

Byron P. Connell ‘63 (byronpconnell@gmail.com) vividly remembers what impacted his decision to pledge to Alpha Chi Rho: it was because of National Secretary Curly Walden.  

“In my freshman year, I visited several fraternities, including AXP, and had sort of decided to pass on all of them. Curly had come to Penn from National Headquarters to help the Chapter with rush. I was reading in my dorm room when he knocked on my door, introduced himself as Wilbur Walden, AXP’s National Secretary, and asked if he could talk with me about Alpha Chi Rho. He did so and changed my mind. I went to the house and met some of the Brothers and two other freshmen he had recruited. The three of us pledged. So, it was Curly’s sales pitch that did the job.” 

And what set AXP apart from the other fraternities? “I want to say it was our anti-hazing policy at a time when most other Penn fraternities hazed pledges, but the truth is that it was the location. The house was so d—-d convenient! It backs onto College Hall Green, and both what was then the library, plus the present Van Pelt Library. In my undergraduate years, 36th Street was still open to vehicular traffic. There was a parking lot next to the house. The quintessential Penn campus bar, Smokey Joe’s, was directly across 36th from the house. Most of all, the University Hospital nursing students lived at Kings Court, on the corner of Chestnut, and walked past the house going to and coming from the hospital twice a day! All of them!” 

Byron says that his best memories are of working as a pledge next to his other Brothers as they spruced up the living room. “I waxed a lot of the walls,” he says. “By hand.” 

He says that the impact of Alpha Chi Rho has been felt long after graduation. “I can’t think what my life would have been like without Alpha Chi Rho,” he says. “A graduate Brother gave me my first post-graduation job. I met the woman who became, and still is, my wife because of that, and we have a daughter because of that.”  

Byron says that giving back is crucial. “As a member of the Brotherhood, I have much the same obligation to support the Chapter, the National Fraternity and the Foundation that I have to support my family. That’s why I accepted election to the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which I currently serve as its Chairman.” 

“If more brothers gave back, we could do much more to fulfill the promises we made when we were initiated,” he adds. “That’s not just to the good of the Chapter, or even just the Fraternity, but to society as a whole as well. As a Foundation Trustee, I know very well how tight funds can be and how hard it can be to encourage new donors to contribute. The Chapter, the Fraternity, and the Foundation each have loyal donors who give generously year after year, but we’re growing older, and we need to bring in new donors, primarily from among the Brotherhood.” 

“Right now, the biggest challenge for the graduate Chapter (the Phi Phi Club) is rehabilitating and improving the house’s physical structure. I’d encourage my fellow members of the Phi Phi Club to donate in support of that effort.” 

Without Alpha Chi Rho, I wouldn’t have married my wife and fathered our daughter.