1998 Volume 121 No 1–4 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

L U M N I
Phi of the year
Loyal Phi, Frank S. Wright, honored with
award at the Sesquicentennial Convention.
By Conrad Foster Thiede
THE MORE YOU LIVE, THE
more you realize that
things just do not happen;
you have to make things
happen," says Frank Wright,
Florida '26. Brother Wright
has lived this life lesson without
hesitation, and so it is no
surprise that he was unanimously
chosen as the recipient
of the 1998 Raymond L.
Gardner Alumnus of the Year
Award. The "Phi of the Year"
Award was created by the
Seattle Alumni Club in 1960
in memory of Raymond L.
Gardner, Washington '18, past
member of the General Council
and long time member of
the Seattle Alumni Club. The
award is given annually to the
alumnus who best exemplifies
individual commitment to his
community, to higher education,
and to the Fraternity.
Greeted by a standing ovation
at the Sesquicentennial
Convention closing banquet,
Frank received his Phi of the
Year honor from Dr. Robert B.
Deloian, president of the General
Council. Frank's acceptance
remarks were eloquent
and humble. His message was
received by some 600 Phis
and guests, and it was one of
the highlights of the
Fraternity's 150th anniversary
celebration.
Conrad Foster Thiede, Colgate
'90, is the director of
development for the
Educational Foundation.
The early start
Frank Wright is a native
Floridian. He was born in
Miami in 1905 and raised in
Jacksonville where he
graduated from Duval High
School in 1922. A 1926
graduate from the University
of Florida, Frank is now the
University's oldest alumnus.
Brother Wright, Bond
Number 9, is the lone
survivor of Florida Alpha's
founding fathers. He
returned to the Gator
campus in 1995 to help the
chapter celebrate its 7Qth
anniversary.
At age 21, Wright became
the youngest sports editor of
a major daily paper in the
United States. He accepted
this promotion after serving
many years as a copy boy and
stringer for the Florida
Times-Union. Over seven decades
later, this record still
stands. In 1927, Frank was
appointed the director of
public relations and alumni
affairs for his alma mater, a
post that he held for 15 years.
Scroll correspondent
The day following the
Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, Wright wired the US
Adj. General, "Eager to go
any place in the world at any
time... the sooner the better."
Frank was commissioned
2nd Lieutenant in the US
Army Air Corps and rose to
the rank of Major as he
served an extended duty in
the China-Burma-India
General Council President Robert B. Deloian and Frank Wright
at the Convention closing banquet.
theatre of the war. All the
while, Frank served as a
Scroll "foreign correspondent
of sorts" by writing
Executive Secretary Paul C.
Beam on a regular basis and
telling of Phi encounters
during the war.
In the January 1943 issue
of The Scroll, Frank wrote: "I
am writing you as we fly
somewhere in Africa. It has
been extremely interesting
and fascinating, Paul, and I
must tell you of a marvelous
experience. As we were alighting
in Africa, putting the first
foot on African soil, it was
3:45 a.m. and only a pale
moon was shining. I put my
first foot aground, was watching
my step, when I heard this
voice shriek out in good old
American English with that
unmistakable Southern accent,
'Brother Frank!' and lo
and behold if there wasn't a
Brother Phi, Charles Henry,
Florida '38, and one really
swell Phi Delt. There is not
much time for us who are in a
new and, we hope, meaningful
endeavor in the war, to
recall too much of our pleasant
and lovely vocational and
avocational interests of civil
life, but in such times as are
afforded I often think of you
and the Fraternity, the great
friendships made with undergraduate
Phis in my visits
with many chapters, of the
great line of past presidents,
of the present General
Council, and many others."
THE SCROLL SUMMER 1998